Second Chance for Romance: Part II
by Otaku-works
Summary: This is part II of a very long series. If you don't read the first one, you will have no idea what I am writing about. This is rated mostly for swearing. In this half it starts in Japan, but then it goes to Egypt and a few exciting things happen
1. Chapter 31

To answer a certain question, I did post two chapters in one night. Because I posted two in one night, I was unable to make the second one I posted any longer than four pages, and I wish I could have, but I was mentally drained. I'll shut up and let you read on. Catch you at the bottom! 

Mariku helped his beloved thief back up to his luxurious master bedroom. He assisted Bakura into the bed and pulled the gold silk sheets up over him and fluffed a few pillows for under his head.

"Comfortable?" He inquired with the same stupid grin on his face. "I am just fine," Bakura snarled at Mariku and was becoming annoyed with the other. Mariku rolled his eyes and looked back at the clock hanging on his wall. It was extremely late and to him Bakura seemed delirious and unstable to the point where he couldn't possibly be by himself.

"Its late. You can stay here tonight." He commented. He turned back to Bakura and gave him a little peck on the forehead. "Good night." Bakura seemed to be a little upset that Mariku had not kissed him directly and had merely done so on his forehead. He shrugged it off and went to bed feeling that he was exhausted and was in need of a good rest.

Mariku walked off towards the drapes on the adjacent wall and pulled them aside. There was a pair of glass sliding doors that led to a wooden deck out back that loomed over the yard.

He leaned over the banister and looked up at the that almost full moon. He thought about Bakura's dream and how he said that he and Malik had stabbed the poor thief. "He dreamt that Malik and myself had stabbed him or whatever the hell happened. I would never…" A tear fell from his eye. He was hurt that Bakura would have such a dream where that would ever happen.

He disappeared completely off of the porch and appeared on the ceilng above Bakura, just like he had one of the first times he come across the robber after the three long years they were apart. He watched the robber stir frighteningly as if he were having another horrible dream.

Mariku was curious and wanted to know everything. He lowered himself from the ceiling and knelt down on the bed beside Bakura. His tan limb reached out to Bakura with his palm spread wide. He placed it upon Bakura's forehead and closed his eyes as he chanted an ancient spell.

He fell unconscious beside Bakura as his spirit entered the thief's demented mind. Everything was dark, but then a sudden light burst and everything could be seen. He was just back in his mansion. In his own mind he had a shadow of doubt that his spell had worked and that it had just overpowered him and knocked him out completely.

He reached out for Bakura's face, but his hand went right through him. He was now merely a spirit and could not touch the other in his dreams. Suddenly, his room evaporated and Bakura was supposedly awake in his dream now.

There was a dark mist surrounding the white haired male who was now just floating in the darkness. Mariku seemed confused and didn't know what was happening exactly.

Just then, Mariku saw a mirror image of himself appear beside the robber. The mirror image of Bakura opened his deep chocolate eyes and stared at the dreamt up version of Mariku. "Mariku…? Help me…its so cold and dark…" The dreamt Bakura whispered.

"Bakura, I hate you. I wish you would die and leave me to live out the rest of my damn life." The image spat back at Bakura. He fell onto what was a solid object and was on his knees, weaping. Mariku was kind of put off by the fact that Bakura was crying about it being cold and dark, and especially since he was practically begging to be saved from the shadows.

"Mariku, what are you saying?" He screamed, his voice echoing throughout the darkness.


	2. Chapter 32

Damn it! I can't my last chapter got erased off the face of this planet! That just pisses me off, but I have retyped it now and I suppose I am in a better mood.

After a while of becoming more sober, Mariku was finally able to stand up straight without any trouble. The first thing he did was go downstairs to see what the damage was after the night he had had.

He was appauled at the sight of his once spotless living room. There were bottles of all sorts scattered, some being broken; liquid stains of all kinds; torn furniture; and the television was spattered with food and other such disgusting things.

The disgusted male turned his eyes to a closet down the hallway and snapped his fingers. Suddenly, cleaning items of all sorts burst out of the closet, putting a hole in the wall where the door knob was jammed.

Mariku's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "My wall…" He sighed and shook his head in disbelief. This day was turning out to be even better than he had thought it would be, sarcastically speaking.

He snapped his fingers again and overlooked two tools that were repairing his wall, then he turned to see how the clean up was going in the living room. It was beginning to look like his living room again.

Bakura was still in the study and was torn away to his own little world where he was thinking and hadn't noticed all of the noise coming from downstairs.

Mariku dropped back on a bean bag in the corner of the room and leaned back lazily in the chair. The cloth that was dusting the shelves swept over Mariku's face and shot dust into his eyes. "What the hell?" He yelled and glared with one eye at the cloth that continued to clean. He leaned back again and rubbed at his eyes more. He was then attacked by the threaded needle that had been repairing his furniture. He leapt out of the chair rubbing at his butt and almost dancing around.

"Why you-!" He yelled and scowled at the items. He snapped his fingers and everything dropped lifelessly to the floor. One by one he picked everything up and put it away in the closet, since the living room was clean he no longer needed them out.

He sighed and wiped at his forehead. "That was really hard to clean up." He said acting as if he even lifted a finger to help. All he did was clean up the cleaning tools.

He went to the kitchen and pulled out the makings of a sandwich which he used to make just that. It was a very large sandwich indeed, one that he cut in half and took the one half for himself, saving the other for Bakura.

He dipped into the fridge quickly to find something to take it down with, but was rather put off by the last beer in there. He passed all of it up for a small juice box that belonged to Malik.

The now hummering keeper sat down to the table and quickly devoured hiw portion of the lunch and sucked down the contents of the small juice box. He didn't want to keep his lover waiting and starving, plus he had more chores to have done around the house.

After he had eaten his own sandwich, he took the other part of the sandwich and another juice box up to the study where his poor lover was sulking over something. He politely knocked on the door, even though this was his house, but received no answer from the other.

Mariku peered into the room through the slight crack in the doorway and saw Bakura hunched over in the window seat with his pallid head buried in his arms.

"Bakura…?" The raider did not answer back to his name and didn't even bother with looking up at Mariku. The tomb keeper padded further into the room and set the plate aside on the frosted glass desktop near his computer. "I brought you something to eat. I hope a sandwich and juice box is all right."

"Its fine," Bakura replied dully and did not once look up. Mariku stood beside Bakura and rubbed his back in circles. "I'm sorry…about this morning."

Bakura shrugged and sighed, "It doesn't matter." Mariku could tell that Bakura was not up for talking or anything social so he backed out of the room and left Bakura to his thoughts. He went down to the end of the hall to his bedroom and went in to do a little bit of cleanup, meaning that the cleaning tools were going to do it and he was going to sit back and enjoy the show.

The bed was made, the laundry was taken down to get washed, the windows were cleaned, and things were dusted. All the while, Mariku was sitting in his large Luv Sac thinking about how different Bakura was acting today.

"What have I done wrong…? That has to be why he is so upset…or worse! He hates me!" Mariku's mind was seeminly screaming this at him. "I can't bare to think that—that its true." He whispered as a tear escaped him, which was caught and scrubbed from his face with the sleeve of his shirt.

Mariku was too curious for his own good and wanted to know if that was really what Bakura was thinking. He left the items to continue their cleaning, he then found himself standing at the entrance to the study.

Just for the sake of being polite, he again knocked on the closed door. "It's open, Mariku," was the reply he was finally given. Mariku stepped in slowly and saw that Bakura was still sitting in the same spot, and hunched over in the same position as before. "Um, I…" Mariku began as Bakura lifted his eyes to meet the others.

Mariku was surprised to see both of the beautiful chocolate orbs drenched in salty tears. "Bakura…? Are you crying…?" Mariku inquired with worry. Bakura returned his face to his arms and sobbed quietly.

The sandy blonde male sat down on the seat beside Bakura and put his arm around the other caringly. "Tell me what's wrong, Bakura…."

Bakura sighed and sat up in a straighter position. "I shouldn't be worrying like this…" He rubbed at both eyes and looked to Mariku. The keeper reached one gentle limb up and ran his lengthy fingers through the raider's long, pallid tendrils. "What are you worried about, Bakura…?" He whispered and leaned Bakura closer against him.

"It's the dream that I had last night…in this dream, you were the one who was killing me…and you hated me…" Bakura was again on the verge of tears at the very thought of his own nightmares.

Mariku felt overwhelming relief rush over him as he realized that it was only a dream that disturbed his lover. "You silly bastard. I don't hate you and I never will." He said with a sense of laughter in his tone.

"I know, Mariku, that I am stupid for worrying over a nightmare, but it felt so very real." Bakura replied and looked to Mariku. "Well, nothing like that will ever happen, so don't worry about it." Mariku returned and smiled sweetly at his lover.

"It better not…" Bakura said in a rather nasty tone. Mariku snickered and reassured that it would not happen. The sandy blonde pulled a clean cloth from the back pocket of his jeans and dabbed at Bakura's cheeks and eyes.

Bakura stood and looked down at Mariku. "I don't know what to think of all this, but I am very concerned about my dreams…" Bakura said and started for the door.

"Its just a silly dream." Mariku said, obviously not understanding how serious this was to Bakura.

"To you it is…" Bakura said in a dull tone and left the room.

You all know how sorry I am, and if not I shall remind you. I AM SO SORRY! This chapter is short, but I didn't want to risk losing this chapter as well. SORRY!


	3. Chapter 33

Hi ya peoples! I'm totally pissed at myself for not getting this chapters up as fast as I would like to be doing so. My computer is being an ass at the moment making it hard to do anything and I sincerely hope this chapter loads.

Both ancient life forms had cleared out of the study with great haste; both being in as foul as mood as they were.

Bakura, who had left first, had detoured his way out onto the deck to calm down and also to think more of his nightmares now that Mariku was not around to taunt him as he had been doing.

Mariku had returned to his labors of cleaning up around the house, of course with magical aid in tow. The next thing on his agenda was the kitchen. The cleaning items went about the specifically assigned duties whilst Mariku sat down to the table to overlook them.

While he sat there, hunched over with is head propped up on one arm, he recalled his spat with Bakura in the study. He thought it more than pathetic of Bakura to worry about his damn dreams, no matter how good or bad. They were only dreams. He also thought of how he reacted in that situation.

He suddenly felt terribly guilty for disregarding anything Bakura had said and the guilt was killing him. Mariku stood and angrily pushed himself away from the table. His concentration the cleaning tools was cut off and they all plummeted to the ground making a loud crashing sound.

Mariku marched out onto the deck, nearly shattering the glass doors when he slammed them shut behind himself. Bakura had obviously been able to hear Mariku's noisy entrance and could only have guessed that it was him. "What do you want now?" He growled.

"You fag! You are the only snake alive that could ever make me feel this guilty over anything!" Mariku roared at Bakura. "Guilty? No one said you had to feel guilty," Bakura returned in his own icy tone that could send a shiver up any opponents spine.

Mariku grabbed Bakura by the shirt and whipped him towards the wall of the house, following up in a flash and shoving him hard against the cold surface. "You made me feel guilty because I did not take your fucking dreams seriously!" Mariku raged tightly to Bakura's body with a look to kill in his piercing lavender eyes.

Bakura put his hands tightly over Mariku's and gave him a most unpleasant of looks. "Listen, I never intended for you to feel any guilt or for you or anyone to take my nightmares seriously, but I however, intend to take them seriously. Now, release me at once." Bakura explained and then demanded for his release.

Mariku released his firm grip on Bakura and backed away from him. The pallid hair brushed the dust form his shirt and straightened himself out. "I appologize…" Mariku said in a whisper with sincerity intended. However, Bakura was in disbelief of his sincerity.

"Fine, I accept…now get out of my face." Bakura said as he brushed Mariku off and headed for a chair resting against the railing of the deck. Mariku's eyes narrowed to the thinest of slits, and he then grabbed the raider once again but this time boast him over the railng and into the snow below.

Bakura feel deep into the powder and a moment later sat up and brushed the snow out of his hair, shaking off the blow. He was unfazed by the magnitude of his long fall and was merely angry with the other that threw him over the edge of the deck. "What the fuck, Mariku!" He yelled up towards the deck where Mariku's was looming over the railing at Bakura and staring at him with the same narrowed glare.

"If you are going to be like that then I retract my apology! Maybe you should just stay put in the snow and cool down, and after that then we'll talk!" Mariku returned to the warmth of his home and stormed off to his bedroom.

"You are a real ass hole, Mariku Ishtar!" Bakura scram up at the open window of the keeper's bedroom. Just then, something crystal was cast out of the opening, hitting Bakura right between the eyes, knocking him back into the mound of snow he was still in. "I heard that, you bastard!" Followed up right after.

Bakura angrily went into the house and dressed into something that was more like what he would wear before he confronted Mariku's barricaded doors. "Well, I'm leaving now so that you won't have to feel guilty anymore! Perhaps then we can both 'cool down' as you put it!" The raider shouted through the closed doors. "Good! Get out already because I absolutely despise you now!" Mariku hastily retorted from behind the doors.

Bakura had nothing against leaving immediately and had left as quickly as he had come. He returned to the comforts of his own home, but only came upon the sight of the two hikaris being topless, and with one being without any form of trousers; that being Malik of course.

He gripped Malik's wavering limb tightly and tore him off of the couch away from Ryou. He picked up Malik's clothing and directed the nude male to the door with orders for him to leave the house immediately. "I'm not in the mood to watch a Mariku look-alike fucking my hikari. I want you out now!" He ordered keeping a firm grip on Malik as he escorted him to the front door.

"Oww…you're hurting me Bakura! What the hell's wrong with you?" Malik groaned as he tried to pull away. Bakura released him and watched as Malik tripped over himself and was on the hardwood floor in only a matter of seconds.

"That's none of your damn business." He barked at Malik. The sandy blonde hikari sat up and started to dress himself as he glared at Bakura who was glaring equally as much as he. "Boku, tell us what's wrong!" Malik blurted without a hint of thought put into his speech. He had called the already p.o.'d raider by his nickname given him by Mariku while he had been handicapped with his amnesia.

Bakura further narrowed his eyes at the other and tightened both fists hung down at his sides. "Call me that again and I'll kill you without hesitation." The other's threat was reason enough to never speak the name again. The raider turned and made his way up the tall staircase to his bedroom. "Bakura!" Ryou called, but was too late to say another word before the other had disappeared into his own little sanctuary. (aka his bedroom)

The pallid haired hikari lowered his yead and sighed most sadly. Malik sat on the floor, his mind trapped deep in thought for a short moment. Suddenly, he leapt up from the floor and darted up the stairs with a twistedly scared look on his features. He broke into the drafty bedroom that was without even the light of day.

Bakura was hunched over on the edge of his bed, his entire body turned front to the window and his back to the door. "What did you do?" Malik demanded, knowing something had most likely happened between the two ancient egyptians.

"What did 'I' do…?" He echoed in a whisper. He stood and turned to face Malik with narrowed eyes glaring at him intensely. He even bore his pearl white fangs at the innocent creature standing not far from him. His look was that of a murderer even though he had not killed…yet.

"What did 'I' do?" He echoed more loudly and angrily. "I have done nothing! Not a damn thing! All that I did was have a stupid dream that Mariku was going to kill me! I take great concern in my dreams, unlike Mariku who could care less." He continued to glare at the other with a look of malice that was frightening to the hikari.

Malik's body quivered with fear, but he wasn't about to run from anyone, especially Bakura who he had feared for far too long. "That's bull shit…" He retorted in a wavering tone.

"What did you say?" Bakura inquired in a whisper. No one had ever dared to speak back to him like this ever. It was strange that this little human had the nerve to continue arguing with Bakura.

"I said that its bullshit! He wouldn't harm you ever. I know how much he loves you and cares for you, and he loves you far too much to ever do such a thing to you!" Malik retorted with passion behind each word he spoke.

Bakura was in disbelief of what he was hearing. Was this minority of a human actually saying any of this to the raider? He again turned his back on Malik and returned to sitting down on his bed in a slumped over way.

Suddenly, the faint sounds of sobbing were emitting from the raider which was truly a rare and strange occurance to ever come about. "You have no idea…" Malik heard as a faint whisper coming from the crying yami.

Malik couldn't believe what he was now witnessing. Bakura? In tears? Malik pinched himself just to make sure he wasn't dreaming, and indeed he was not. He was very much awake. It was odd, at one moment the raider had a look of murder in his eyes and was on the verge of tearing off the hikari's head, but in the next he had broken down into tears.

"Bakura. They're only dreams and nothing more. Its just a bunch of silly dreams."

A voice echoed then in Bakura's head; Mariku's voice. "It's just a silly dream…" He had said to Bakura not but an hour ago maybe even less. The words seemed to grow stronger refusing to fade out or disappear. "Just a silly dream…" It echoed again bouncing around inside his head, taunting him so.

"Get out or I'll tear you into shreads of non-existance!" Bakura threatened in a risen and dangerous tone of voice.

Well, there you have it. Another chapter. All of you are like "finally she got another chapter up, god that took forever" well, I am sorry for taking so long.


	4. Chapter 34

Yay! Omg, I am getting excited now because for this chapter I am going to attempt starting into the Egyptian part of the story. I'm not so excited that this story is on its way to ending. That really makes me sad. It was a fun run though. I will have to write another one of these fics. Maybe I can do the JouxKaiba one. Whatever my bud thinks. Well, let's begin shall we?

Malik and Bakura were in a standoffish faze; Bakura staring down Malik, and Malik staring right back at him without giving way to the fear that welled up inside his quivering body.

"Stop stalling and get the hell out!" Bakura repeated in an equally threatening tone. Malik narrowed his eyes at the other, "I'm not leaving yet, Bakura. We still need to talk." He retorted.

Bakura burst out of the room by Malik and was already at the base of the stairs. "Fine, then I'll go somewhere else. Just stay if that is what you really desire." Bakura grabbed for his long black trench coat and left as quickly as he could.

"That's what I thought! You're just a big coward!" Malik screamed from the top of the stairs. Ryou was shaking as rage built up inside his body. He looked as if he were going to scream or explode. "Malik! Stop this immediately!"

"I won't, Ryou! I'm tired of watching him destroy my yami's life!" Malik yelled back at his fuming lover. "As far as it goes, I think that Mariku is really the one destroying lives here!"

Just as Malik had opened his mouth, Ryou had ordered him to shut up. He grabbed his own coat and stormed out after his yami to go and retrieve him before he could get too far away from the house. Malik was appauled that his own boyfriend had told him to shut up.

Ryou ran down the pathway of the main street surrounding their home and saw Bakura walking further away at a quick pace. The hikari ran as fast as he could to get to his yami and was actually catching up. "Bakura! Please stop!" He called after him. Bakura stopped and glanced back over his shoulder to see the little hikari chasing after him. "What the hell do you want?" He inquired in a rather cold tone that Ryou did not appreciate but he could stand it just this once.

"I want to go with you, wherever you are going, Bakura." Ryou said with a weeze and a puff as he was gaining his breathe more steadily. "If you are going with me, then you had better learn to pick up the pace and not fall behind because I won't stop for you." Ryou agreed to his so called terms and they both walked off together down the path, Bakura ahead of Ryou who trailed not far behind him, but kept a certain amount of distance.

Malik had gone home feeling rather upset with himself because now he had pushed away the one person that ever truly cared for him. He walked home at a quick pace as well, but he wanted to leave as soon as was possible and not a moment later. He walked up the many cases of stairs and walked down the long hallway to Mariku's bedroom which was still barricaded to keep Bakura from coming in just in case he had not yet left and was more plotting out his revenge on Mariku.

The hikari knocked on the door and called to Mariku through the splintered wood. The door was unbarred and Malik was aloud in. The handsome egyptian male was laying on the bed stomach down on the sheets and was staring at a glass of wine that he had in his hand. It was strange that the glass was still full since Mariku was such a heavy drinker when it came to his favorite wine.

"Mariku, I think that it is time we left this god-forsaken city." Malik suggested quite strongly with a certain upset tone about himself.

"Leave? But why would we do that?" Mariku inquired quite unsure of the reason for suddenly leaving a place that he was growing used to so quickly. Malik did not answer his question, but did answer with another question of his own. "Why should we stay? There's nothing here for us. I was thinking we should move to Egypt. That did used to be your home and it could be a great big adventure."

Mariku glanced over at his hikari and saw the guiltiest of looks on the younger one's face. He sat up and looked curiously at his lighter half. "All right, what did you do this time?" He inquired with one brow cocked high.

Malik sighed and knew that Mariku would find out sooner or later or at least realize so he decided it best to tell him the truth and get punished lightly now than punished more heavily later. "To be honest…" He began and started scratching at the back of his neck. "I yelled at bakura and now he is no longer in the mood to ever see our faces again." He confessed to his yami. "And I am all for moving to Egypt." He added on the side bar of it all.

Malik confessed further of what he had said to Bakura, well, more of told the half truth and fed his yami a few other lies to go with it. He was then smacked upside the head by his disgusted yami. Malik had made things a little worse for himself just by telling his yami those lies which were more meant to get him out of such troubles than to put him in them.

"You idiot! What the hell were you thinking?" His yami raged at him and smacked him again near the same spot as before. "I don't know. I guess I wasn't thinking at the time. But Mariku, they're gone and we can start all over with our lives somewhere else. I mean, didn't you hate Bakura for making you feel guilty and didn't you hate having that annoying Ryou around?" Malik was listening to himself and he just wanted to break down in tears. He couldn't believe what he had just said about his lover. The one person he loved more than life itself. He just thought he was doing himself and his yami some good by forcing them out of the picture.

Mariku feel back on his bed and stared into the air. "I can't believe this," he sighed and grimaced. He looked to his hikari and ordered him out for a short while until he could compose his thoughts properly and think more about the move Malik so desperately wanted to make.

After at least an hour or two of thinking, Mariku had decided that it could be good to leave Japan and go somewhere that he was at least comfortable. He had never truly wanted to come to Japan in the first place and he was now actually excited that he was getting to leave this horrible place. However, his heart was heavy when it came to thinking that he would be leaving Bakura behind. That was his only delay, but he couldn't just stay like this.

After a lot more thought was put into the matter, both yami and hikari had taken off abruptly, leaving behind their many positions and the beautiful mansion that Mariku had worked so hard to create. He was sad to leave it behind, but he couldn't very well put his house on a plane so he had to leave it. Thereafter, they caught the next flight out of the Japan and were on their way to Egypt.

Okay, shoot me if you want, but I am leaving this chapter short for one reason. I want a clean pallet when I start into the Egyptian stuff. I'll have that up soon because I am working on it as I am writing this little message at the bottom.


	5. Chapter 35

Hello everyone. Okay, I'm going to take to a little bit of explaining about this and probably the next few chapters. Its going to be weird, but stay with me, k? There are going to be a few new characters, some physical character changes, and a few scenes of this that take place in this dance club. Oh, and for all of you dancers who know what you are doing, don't make fun of me for not really knowing any of this stuff. I don't dance therefore I would not know. Anyways, here's the next chapter of Second Chance for Romance.

A year after the feud between the four lovers, the yamis and their hikaris had taken to new lives, leaving behind their old and terribly distorted lives in Japan. Mariku and Malik had fled to Cairo, Egypt to begin their lives, taking it step by step.

They had settled down into a home much like their old one, but it was smaller with only two floors instead of three. The mansion sized home was made up of brown bricks that were spattered with paint, this making the house stand out from the rest of the homes surrounding it.

The insides of the house were colorful and not boring at all. The furniture was of a rich quality consisting of silk. There was yet another largely unaffordable home entertainment system, but for Mariku it was no trouble at all to obtain such fine things for his home since he had to never pay for something he could materialize with a new magic he had learned from a book of spells he had come across when he had moved into the city.

The house consisted of one hundred guest rooms along with Mariku and Malik's own rooms which were twice the size of their old rooms. Mariku's bed was made of the finest gold silk, even better than what was on his couch. He had pillows galore, a black carpet (to hide the wine stains ), and a very expensive chest of drawers. There were candles everywhere and a small bar to please his drinking habits.

Malik's room was basically the same except for he did not have small bar, of course, he never actually drank, and if he did he was tricked into it by his lying darker half. They had it all, just like they did in Japan. Except, Mariku had not truly ever gotten over Bakura who he thought of ever day.

"Malik!" The tomb keeper called up to the second floor to his hikari. The lighter half of the dark rushed to the banister atop the stairway, glancing over its edge. "I'm going to market. Do you need anything?" The darker half inquired. "Yeah, hold on." The hikari ran to his bedroom and soon returned with a very long list of things to pick up and sent him on his way.

Surprisingly, just a fifteen minute walk from the mansion-sized home, a new club had opened. Two twin brothers, probably from the states, had opened it and they had the only one in this city. They were both said to be a handsome men with palid locks of hair and a smile that could melt butter in an instant, of course, both had to be dazzling if they were twins, unless they were only fraternal brothers.

Mariku walked past the mysterious new club and paused. He could hear the wonderful sounds of real music emitting from behind the red painted doors of the club and past the bouncers standing at the entrance of the doors.

The dark egyptian was curious as to what this club was like since he had never really been to one of these gatherings before. He approached the bouncers who were carrying clip boards with a list of names printed out on paper. Mariku waved his finger and his name appeared in small print on the bottom of the list. He was let in without a fuss.

He glided across the room to a booth in the back corner and sat down, calling for a waitress as he slid into the booth. A waitress quickly came to his table and inquired of a drink or food preference. Mariku asked for a hard drink on ice and sent her to fetch it.

Everyone in the club was either rich or sexy and some were both types. The large speakers were pressing out a great and quickly paced beat that the dancers were jumping about to on the dance floor out in the middle of the room.

Mariku slumped over at his table, his egyptian robes falling all over his face and body amounting to a huge pile of sagging but beautiful cotton cloth. Everyone was dressed up and Mariku was the only dressed as if he lived back in the dark ages which he had infact exsisted in and thought it only proper to dress so.

Suddenly, the pace of the music and the music itself had changed without warning. Many people that had just danced stepped off of the floor for a short break leaving only a few couples dancing, one of them being a short, thin-waisted man.

He had short palid locks, left about an inch in length; he wore a flowing black button-down shirt with a red tie around his neck; and had on straight-legged black trousers; and a simple black shoe that was not hard to dance in. He wasn't to hard on the eyes, but Mariku couldn't tell since he was sat too far away to see who this man was. But he was most likely one of the owners of the club from the description Mariku had be given of them.

The man was dancing with his fabulously dressed partner who had a small frame, and was wearing a short red dress, with slim and tall heels that had strings to tie up around her legs. Her hair appeared to be long and a beautiful shade of red, but was pinned up in a dramatic way that had a lovely effect on the way she looked from the neck up. She was a beautiful little thing and the guy was lucky to have her.

Mariku slumped over further and was now wanting his drink even more so he could drown out the sudden depression that came about him. Suddenly, the people began to clap to the beat and were all watching as the two amazing dancers, the club owner and the attractive girl, went into a more complicated dance that was obviously crowd pleasing.

The waitress approached Mariku's table and placed his drink down in front of him on the table. "Is there anything else I can get you at the moment?" She inquired and popped her gum sucking it back into her mouth to chew on it some more.

"Well, another one of these will be good…" He said and pulled the drink closer to himself. "All right. If you need anything other than that just give me a holler." She walked off just as Mariku sucked the alcoholic beverage down in one gulp and slammed the glass down on the table.

He pulled his hood over his head further and sighed for the time being. The lights dimmed as a slowers song came into being. The lot of the people that had been watching were dancing once again and the palid haired man had disapeared off of the floor. His attractive partner was now dancing with some new person that was without a partner.

Mariku was just sitting there, when he felt someone gently raise his hood up from over his head. He glanced up and saw a beautiful blonde female playing with his hood. She gave him a rather large and friendly grin. "Hey stud, wanna dance?" The slim figure bent itself into a sideways pose with one hand firmly placed on her gorgeous hip as she stood waiting for some form of a reply.

"Not really," he groaned into the sleeves of his robes.

"Oh come on. I know you want to because I saw you watching all of those dancers in the last song." She continued to bother. Mariku gave her no reply and was quite quickly pulled from his booth and stipped of his robes. Thankfully, Mariku had decided to wear something under his egyptian robes unlike the day before when that was all that clothed his body.

Mariku was wearing a tight black sleevless shirt with a hood hanging from the back. It had gold chains clinging to the front of the shirt, like he had on most of his other shirts similar to this one. He had on tan colored cargo trousers and a pair of soft fabric shoes similar to what he had worn back in his time where they didn't have tennis shoes or anything like that.

The girl dragged him out to the middle of the dance floor against his will and started to dance with him. He leaned away from her and gave her a very strange look. "What the hell do you think you are doing? I had not yet accepted such an invitation."

"So…you were going to say yes, but then I tore you out here?" She inquired of Mariku. He sighed and dropped his head. It was obvious that it was the not the way he had intended to say what he had. He thought it no use to try telling her otherwise and he was already out here dancing, so he just gave in and danced with a small amount of distance between them.

"Oh, by the way, my name is Missy." She smiled and pulled Mariku's gorgeous body closer to her own since this was a slow dance, and also because she wanted to.

The attractive red headed girl that had been dancing with another had danced her way closer to Missy who was one of the closest friends. She looked back over her shoulder at Missy and called her name.

The blonde female looked back and was excited to see her friend on the floor behind her. "Who's your friend?" The crimson haired girl inquired with a slight dip in her tone for a sexy effect, and also gave Mariku a little wink as she looked him over. Missy shrugged cutely and leaned back against Mariku.

"Are you sure he wants to dance? He doesn't look much into this."

"I know he does, he was watching you and….what's the guy's name again?" Missy inquired and glanced back at her gal pal.

"Ryou…" the other replied. Mariku had not heard this and was staring off over the crowd of people in the room. He turned his attention back to the giggling girls. "Right," Missy chimed.

"He doesn't like to have a lot of people know who he is. I am surprised his staff even knows him like they do."

"What are you two babbling about? Just dance, because I want to get this over as quickly as possible." Mariku interrupted in a snapping tone that was rather unpleasant.

"No need to be hostile…say, what's your name?" the red head inquired.

"Mariku…Mariku Ishtar." He replied and looked down as his partner clung more tightly to his waist as they danced which was uncomfortable for the male egyptian since it was a woman clinging to him.

"Mariku….nice name, I like it. My name is Megan." The sexy crimson haired female replied. The girls continued to chatter away like girls do when they are talking about men or something totally exciting. "This is why I am more for men that women…" he muttered and sighed. Missy looked back at Mariku and asked him what he had said, but was only told that he had said nothing.

The song changed to a Latin style of music. Some couples sat down and cleared up the floor a bit, showing Mariku and Missy off a little more as they danced and were not quite as surrounded as before.

Ryou walked over to the bar from his office and leaned against it in a very appealing way. He watched as the floor emptied further and people were now just watching Mariku and his partner dancing. Mariku was a lot better at dancing to Latin music than he was dancing to a slower paced music.

Megan had also cleared off of the floor, thanking the man she had danced with for the last dance, and headed over to the bar where Ryou was standing and watching. "Are you all right? You're just standing here when you could be dancing."

Ryou nodded, "Yes, I'm just a bit tired from the last dance with you. You wore me out." He smiled at her and she smiled back. They both watched for a moment before Ryou again spoke up. "Who is that dancing?" He pointed to the sandy blonde on the floor.

"He said his name was Mariku Ishtar." Megan replied and sat down on one of the bar stools. "Really…" Ryou said sounding a little bit surprised to hear that most familiar of names.

Mariku spun Missy out and picked up a flower before retrieving her from the corner of the floor. He put the flower into Missy's hair for her and they continued to amaze. People applauded and seemed most impressed with their masterful dancing.

"Yeah, I think he may be new or something. This is the first time I've seen him in the club." Megan returned to Ryou who nodded and stared on at them as they finished up the dance. Megan leaned in a little closer to Ryou and looked at him with a puppy eyed look to herself. "Hey, after this song is finished would you want to dance one more time?"

"Sure…" He muttered and was entranced by the dance to the Latin music.

Well, this is as far as I go tonight. I've been working on this practically all night and I need to sleep. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It's a little bit more fun and it can only get better with the next few chapters. Peace, love, and padded walls to y'alls! heehee…I just had to say that


	6. Chapter 36

Okay, so there Mariku is, dancing with some girl who forced him to get off of his ass and do something with himself instead of moping around. Just because he was FORCED (notice its capitalized) does not mean that he is bisexual by any means, in fact, he hates girls and can barely stand them, no offense if it somehow offends. Just thought I would make that clear. Whoa! Yay! There are officially more than one hundred reviews! Something I dreamed about, but I'm weird like that. Thanks to all of you that read/review this story. I'm glad you've all enjoyed it so far. I'll shut up now and let you get to the story, alright? Cya at the bottom!

Another song followed up the last and everyone was cheering for Mariku and his dancing partner, Missy, who had both done quite well for newcomers to the dance floor. Missy bowed and then forcefully bent Mariku forwards so that he could bow as well. The man almost fell over because of it.

Ryou took Megan's hand and escorted her out to the floor and commenced in dancing with the lovely ruby haired woman. Mariku stood straight and glared at Missy for a moment and then took a deep breath to calm himself. "Listen, I'm leaving. Thanks, but no thanks for the dance." He started to walk off, but then found himself being held back by his arm.

He peered back over his shoulder and saw the young woman clinging to his arm for what seemed to be for dear life. "What the hell are you doing? Let go." He commanded. Missy gave him a sort of puppy-eyed look with her lower lip quivering for added effect, of which it had none on Mariku. "I said I'm done."

"One more dance won't kill you." Regardless of Mariku was going to have done, he was pulled back to the middle of the dance floor and was made to start dancing again to the new beat. It wasn't fast or slow, but in between.

Mariku danced with a displeased grimace glued to his features, but Missy had on a large and satisfied smile on her face. She chanced to giggle once and a while when Mariku had twirled her around.

Missy glanced back at Ryou and Megan who were dancing near them again and saw that they had picked up on some very suggestive moves and were playing it out. Missy thought this would be a good time to try something new and started to play it out with Mariku who's eyes grew wide and his expression was of surprise and sudden embarrasement.

"Cease this foolishness immediately," He said as quietly as he could to her over the blaring speakers in the room. Missy completely ignored his command and started slinging her way down his waist and leg. Mariku yanked her up by her arm and stared at her with a twitch in his right eye. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Having fun," she simply replied and started getting into something more suggestive with him. Mariku was barely moving and this proved to be no more fun than before. Missy looked back to Megan and said something to her.

Just then, the two girls twirled past eachother into the other man's arms. Megan was with Mariku and Missy was now with Ryou. Mariku seemed to be the more confused one and wasn't sure what had just happened and didn't think it very funny in any way.

Megan had calmed her suggestivness down quite a bit seeing as Mariku wasn't into that and danced more slowly for him so they could possibly talk. "Um…Hello." Mariku stammered unsure of what further he could say at this moment in time. Megan smiled sweetly at Mariku and put her arms around his neck as she danced with him.

"What's up?" Missy inquired of Ryou as she delved more deeply into her new suggestive moves that she had picked up from watching Chris. "Nothing at all, just dancing. What of you?" He inquired back of her. "Ditto," was her ditzy reply.

"I'm Megan just so you know. And don't worry, I won't make you dance in any suggestive way." She smiled at him, but received no smile from the egyptian. "Are you all right?" She lowered her arms a touch and looked at him a little more closely.

"Its nothing." Mariku replied. "I can tell that there is something bothering—" Mariku tore away from Megan and walked off of the dance floor. He hurried to his table to grab his belongings and walked out of the club and onto the street. Megan chased out after him and called to him, but he had disappeared into the darkness of the night. She shrugged and went back inside.

Mariku had gone off into a nearby darkened alleyway and was sat in the dirt leaning against the side of the building. "Nothing is wrong….nothing at all…" A tear escaped his lavender eyes and streamed down his handsomely tanned features.

Suddenly, Mariku's stomach bellowed a hungry cry for food. The egyptian went through his money purse, but he had spent all of his currency on drinks at the night club. He slumped down and moaned a little. He hadn't eaten since breakfast, and putting all of his energy into dancing hadn't helped the situation.

Just then, a well-dressed man walked by the alley. Mariku watched him as he walked by and spotted the square shaped lump in his back pocket which he assumed was a money-filled wallet.

Mariku pulled the egyptian cloth over his face and crept out of the shadowed alley and up behind the man. "Hello," He greeted and pulled the wallet out of the other's pocket, bolting off in a direction opposite the man.

The silhoutted figure instantly noticed this and took up chase. Mariku pulled down and baskets and carts to make it harder for the other to keep up with him.Amazingly the other was able to leap over every hurdle and was catching up quickly to Mariku.

Getting tired of chasing him, he leapt forward and tackled the conceiled figure to the ground. He was finally able to snatch away the wallet, but with a bit of trouble. "Don't under estimate the people you steal from." The man said and stood up off of Mariku.

The egyptian swung his leg around and knocked the shorter man back down and again tackled him to the get the wallet away. The struggling man thrust up his knee into Mariku groin and knocked him over with a pained sound whispering from his lips.

The man resumed his height and started to run to get away from Mariku. The egyptian snapped his fingers, and the shorter figure was now hovering in the air upside down. Mariku regained his own height with some trouble and sort of limped over painfully to the hovering one, his hood falling back revealing his face. He didn't care at the moment, he more preferred to slaughter the man that had fought back and injured him in the process.

"Give it up! Put me down Mariku Ishtar!" His victim said in a raised tone. "What?" He said surprised a bit and corked his brow. "How do you know my name?"

"I never forget a face…" Mariku snapped his fingers again and dropped the shorter male into a heap on the ground. "Who the hell are you?" The male rose to his feet and brushed the dust from his tight leather outfit that defined his body well. "I doubt my name is of any importance to you anymore. So, if you will just excuse me I have to leave."

Mariku grabbed him tightly by the arm. "Okay, well, if you won't give me a name, at least give me your wallet." He held out his hand and waited for the wallet to be placed. His hand was slapped away by the smaller male who pulled himself free of Mariku's grasp. "Why is my name so important to you when my yami's name is probably of more value? Then again, you probably don't care anymore."

Mariku backed away a step and looked as if he had seen a ghost or something bizzare such as that. "You're Ryou…..aren't you?" He stammered and choked as he tried to free those words that he had not spoken for such a long time.

"Good-bye Mariku. Perhaps we will run into eachother under better conditions." He walked away slowly leaving Mariku behind the dark of the night. "Wait! Where is he?" Mariku called behind, but Ryou ignored him and disappeared out of sight.

Mariku got a little jittery in his actions. He couldn't decide whether to follow Ryou or to just go home. He wanted to see Bakura, but what if Bakura didn't want anything to do with him? It could break his heart, or he could save himself the heart break and just not follow the little one.

He ended up following Ryou, but not very closely, just enough to be able to spot him. On Ryou's way he stopped to talk with several people he knew very well, and even picked up a few things for meal and clothing purposes. Mariku had been following him around the city for at least an hour and was growing tired of following him.

Just then, Ryou turned up the pathway to a large home and walked in, locking the door behind himself. Mariku played on the knob for a moment before he realized he'd never get in that way. He wandered around the side of the house and looked for a way in. He glanced up higher than he wanted to and saw an open window that seemed to be screaming his name.

He shrugged and started to climb up the clay brick wall. Ryou set down all of his purchases and wandered up to the second floor to see if he could find Bakura anywhere. "Bakura? Are you here?" He wandered down the hallway to Bakura's room and opened the door. He walked in further to see if Bakura was hiding somewhere that he wasn't looking. "Bakura?"

"So, I see you are home already?" Ryou glanced over his shoulder and spotted Bakura standing in the doorway, leant up against the paneling. Outside of the house, Mariku had finally reached the window and was looking about it madly. "Where is he?" He thought to himself. He could hear the two voices from another part of the house and looked about for another window to climb to.

"Oh, there you are. I was just wanting to tell you that I was home, but I guess you know already." The innocent hikari smiled at his yami with his head at a slant and his arms held behind his back. "Whatever…" Bakura returned with little interest in his tone.

Ryou walked by him to go put the grocery items away, Bakura stalking behind him to the kitchen to get something to eat. "You know, you really need to get out more…you should come to the club with me sometime. I mean, we did make that place together and you haven't even bothered to visit it yet." Ryou stated whilst putting away the many food items.

Bakura snatched the fruit in Ryou's hand from him and bit into it. "I don't have to go anywhere." Just then, a large crashing noise was heard from outside. Both yami and hikari went to a window in the kitchen to look out. It was really too dark to see anything.

"Do you see anything, Bakura?" Ryou inquired as his eyes scanned over the street. "I don't." Bakura replied. They both shrugged and drew away from the window.

Poor Mariku, not far from that window, had landed on a few clay pots below the window and was laying there in pain. "Ow…" He muttered and sat up rubbing his lower back.

Ryou closed the pantry door and turned to Bakura who was leant against the marble counter behind him, near the sink. Bakura had changed quite a bit as his hikari had. He had the same short hair cut; and he was wearing a short sleeved black t-shirt, and black lounging pants. "You should come to the club. Maybe, it would help to get certain things and people off of your mind."

"I don't think so." He replied with his mouth full. "Oh come on! You know all of the dance moves that I do, and you would have a good time…" Ryou tried to persuade his yami.

Bakura stood away from the counter with his back turned to his hikari, and his brow on the twitch. "Fine! Just stop bugging the hell out of me…and I will consider it…" Ryou smiled knowing he had most likely won that battle. "Good, you will have fun.

Mariku had left Bakura's house dissatisfied and sulking, doing the same when he returned to his home. Malik had seen his yami come in and heard him go upstairs, shutting both doors behind himself. He saw how upset and how sad Mariku was and decided it best to leave him alone, but then again, Malik wasn't one to do that and he wanted to know everything about his yami and what he felt and thought. This curiosity had come about after they had left Japan.

He ventured up to Mariku's room and opened the door just enough to poke his head in, seeing his yami tossed onto his side on the king-sized bed, his back to the doors.

"Are you okay, Mariku?" The smaller male slipped into the room and closed the second door to the room. Mariku sighed and looked back over his shoulder at his hikari. "I don't know…" He simply and quietly answered.

Malik saw that Mariku's room had clothing scattered all over the floor. He began picking each article of cloth up and was folding what was cleaning and putting what was dirtied into the nearby hamper in his closet. "Hey, I heard about this awesome club. I'll go with you if you—"

"Get off my fucking back." Mariku grumbled.

"Fine, well, I am going so you can make your own dinner." Malik left without saying anymore to his yami and went to get a little more dressed up before he left. Sure, it was quite late, and dark outside, but Malik hadn't been out of the house all day and he needed to go do something fun.

Well, I have gone far enough for this chapter. Hope you enjoyed it somewhat. I appologize if my writing skills have gone down the drain, but I was kinda rushed to get this typed up. Lata!


	7. Chapter 37

Okay, I get it, the weirdo chicks were a little much to add, but that's okay because I needed more characters for the story or else it would go no where. (shrug) at least they weren't drunk. That could worsen things. Put up with them for now. Maybe I will smite them later. Jkjk. Okay, on Malik's outfit here, I couldn't much explain the shoes like I wanted to, but if you know the simple kind the egyptians wore, then that is what I am talking about. Okay, here we go!

Malik arrived on the club scene looking all tripped out and ready to have a little fun. He was dressed down in an outfit he had snatched out of Mariku's laundry after it had been done and before it was returned to his bedroom.

His outfit consisted of tight leather knee length pants, perhaps too tight for him; a tight red shirt with ties across the front around the neck; and a pair of flat based shoes that were plain and simple, but perfect for dancing and other such activities similar to that; and last was the noir colored belts he had tied around his ankles and wrists.

He glanced over the neon lit building. Held fast over the entrance was a magnificent sign consisting of two colors, blue and red which made sense since the club was called _Fire and Ice_. It was a catchy title indeed, even though Malik had no idea what its meaning was.

He paused and stared at the bouncers standing outside of the club, one holding a clip board with a list most likely attached. He took up his nerve and approached the bouncers slowly. The man glanced up from his clip board through his noir shades at the short blonde hikari and smiled and nodded slowly.

He pushed the door open for Malik who walked in unsure of what had just occurred, but was also glad that he had gotten past the larger and very frightening men.

The lights were dimmed around the tabled areas and more focused on the crowded dance floor. Malik bobbed his head to the sweet beat exploding from the speakers scattered about the room and looked everything over. It was then that he spotted a gaggle of girls hovering near the bar that were looking him over thoroughly, exchanging their words secretively with a giggle and another glance following afterwards.

Malik without thinking walked over to the bar in a very macho way and ordered one of the hardest drinks they had in the joint. The girls giggled and continued to comment. Malik sat down on the stool and waited for his drink. It was then that he realized he had bought one of the hardest drinks and that he never actually drank, which presented its own dillema of sorts.

The female bar keeper pushed the drink to Malik along with another that was fizzy and looked a lot like a soda drink. He leaned in close to the woman and said very quietly, "I didn't order this, ma'am."

The woman smiled at him widely. "You didn't look like the type that would drink something like this so I brought you a glass of soda pop too." She winked at the sandy blonde and returned to her duties. Malik shrugged and took to drinking the soda pop instead, hiding the obviously stronger of the drinks behind the other to make it look like he were actually drinking the stronger one.

Suddenly, he felt a soft tapping on his shoulder. He turned about on the stool to see a vibrant young woman standing behind him. She was wearing a red spaghetti-strapped leather dress that was amazing on her perfect hourglass shape. She was also wearing a very high heeled shoe that was also red and the strings were tied up to her knees in a neat sort of way.

"I see you're back, huh? Couldn't stay away?" The woman standing before him was Megan, the same woman that Mariku had met when he came to the club. Malik looked behind himself although that was rather stupid looking since he was sitting at the bar and there was no one behind him for her to have even talked to over him.

"Me?" He inquired and pointed one thin finger at himself. "Are you talking to me?" Megan giggled lightly into the palm of her hand and nodded at him. "Of course, who else?" She replied.

"Well, I am afraid that you have the wrong guy."

"But, aren't you Mariku Ishtar?" She inquired in a very confused way.

"Actually, I'm Malik Ishtar, not Mariku." He replied and took a sip of soda drink.. Megan smacked herself in the forehead lightly and smiled at him. "Duh, okay. I'm sorry I bothered you."

"Its no trouble. I didn't know he had already been here. That explains quite a bit." He smiled at the female club-goer and sipped his drink again, completely ignoring the stronger drink altogether.

Megan walked back out to the dance floor and started to dance to the swing tune that had come about. Malik quietly sat at the bar and listened to the many songs that blared throughout the room, slowly bobbing his head to each one, looking quite bored. He didn't want to dance at the moment because of how crowded the floor was at the moment.

Suddenly, the lights dimmed throughout the entire room, only the neon lights left to shine. People quickly cleared the floor and started to cheer and clap as someone entered the floor. Malik turned and watched the crowd go wild as two shadowed figures walked out onto the floor. Being curious of who the silhouetted figures were, the small framed male forced his way through the massive crowd. He thanked the gods that he was small enough to do so with little trouble.

The two dancers struck their opening pose and then the music commenced. The vibrant couple danced to the fast paced song as if it were nothing at all. They were graceful creatures, their every move without flaw. It was a spectacular performance.

Malik tried several times to get a look at the dancers, but failed with each attempt he made. He wasn't truly paying much attention to the male's dance partner. He was more intent on seeing the face of the man with the hot ass of which he was paying his attention to.

The woman was swung out of the man's arms, spinning off into a corner of the dance floor. With the short moment he had, Malik had captured the face of the female dancer. It was Megan who had the honor of dancing with the handsome male. "Lucky bitch," he muttered with jealousy clinging to his words.

Suddenly, an enthusiastic woman embraced Malik's arm and whipped him out onto the floor without any warning. Megan and Ryou glanced over at them once or twice. "Missy, what are you doing?" Megan inquired of her friend.

"I thought Mariku might want to dance with me." Missy replied and looked back at Malik with a grin on her features. "Um…My name's Malik, not Mariku. He's not here tonight." Malik interrupted the hyper female.

"That's okay! We can dance anyways cutie-pie!" She got Malik to at least move. At first his movements were clumsy, but then he began to get the hang of dancing. He hadn't done so in quite some time and was a bit rusty.

Ryou dipped his partner down near the ground and glanced up at the other dancing male, who was doing the same move. It was then that he recognized the other. By accident, he dropped his own partner on the floor with a loud thud and a small squeak piercing her lips as she slipped to the ground.

Ryou quickly helped her up and appologized several times for dropping her during their dance. He looked back at Malik and watched him gracefully end his own dance with Missy and the music died out to make space for the next tune.

Ryou promptly left the dance floor promptly and disappeared through the massive crowd of cheering people. Malik too left the floor and returned to the bar for his drink. Ryou was in such a rush that on his way out of the crowd he managed to run into one of his waitresses.

"Are you all right, Mr. Bakura?" Ryou looked down slightly to her name-tag which read as _Janie_. "Sorry, Ryou….but would you like something to drink?" The waitress offered him and he sent her to fetch something that wasn't hard since he rather disliked the stuff. He would rather be alert of where he is rather than bumbling about the place like an idiot.

About five or six chairs down the bar, Malik was hunched over, tapping his fingers on the bar surface, and staring in a sort of bored way into the reflective crystal of his drink glasses.

He glanced down the way and noticed the handsome dancer from earlier sitting not far from him. The handsome male looked down his way and he quickly averted his stare and blushed just ever so lightly. Unfortunately, the talented male's eyes were not turned in his direction, but instead turned to the waitress that had just delivered him his drink.

"Here's your drink, sir. Oh, and before I forget, you were great out there on the floor." The waitress smiled at her boss and looked out at all the people that had taken to dancing. "I need go out there some time." She sighed and stared off for a moment before recalling herself.

Ryou stood and held out his hand to the waitress. "How about now?" He inquired with a sweet smile set upon his soft features. "But I—" the girl stuttered and looked quite shocked for the moment. "It will only be one dance, and the other waitresses can pick up the slack for a few minutes."

Malik glared at the waitress and then back at his drink. "Lucky bitch…she gets to dance with the great looking guy and I get stuck with some chic named Missy. What kind of name is Missy? I mean, come on…Missy?" Malik thought to himself as he watched Ryou escort the young woman out onto the floor amongst the crowd.

Malik couldn't stand it and he was growing quite bored with this place. He flagged down a waitress and asked for the bill. The young woman explained to him that his drinks had already been paid for. "But I didn't pay for it." Malik said seeming very confused.

"Well, it was payed for by…" The woman looked out over the flood of people and pointed out the man dancing towards the center. "The man dancing right there."

Malik looked more closely at the man, or at least tried to with the great distance between them. "That's the guy I was watching earlier….but why would anyone pay for my drinks?" Malik thought and questioned to himself.

The song didn't last long and many evacuated the floor and returned to their tables for drinks and other such things. The waitress thanked Ryou and returned to her duties.

Just as Malik was standing from his bar stool he was approached by Megan who was still wandering around without a partner to dance with. She put her head on his shoulder and saw exactly who he was staring at. "Do you want to dance with him?" This caught Malik off guard and caused him to shriek in a high pitched tone that made Megan laugh quite heard nearly to the point of tears.

"Its you!" He pointed and was leant back against the bar looking as if he saw a ghost or had a heart attack. "Well?" She inquired and put both hands on her slim hips. "Dance? I was just about to leave before you…." He took a deep breath sighed, taking this moment to regain himself.

"I saw you eyeing that man over there. Do you want to dance with him?" She inquired again. Malik rubbed the back of his neck and blushed lightly. "I'm not—" He was speechless at the moment and didn't know what to say or do.

"He is a great dancer. You might enjoy it.

"Guys don't dance together…" Malik replied very, very, very quietly.

"Don't worry about it. Its quite common in here." Megan took a moment to point out several gay couples enjoying themselves in the room. Malik was surprised at how many couples she was able to point out.

"I don't know…I don't even know him…" Malik pointed out to Megan who put her hand on his shoulder. "That is how you get to know him. Dance with him." She persisted and repeated.

"I swore off mean when…he left me, and I left him…" Malik said bringing up painful memories of the past year which he didn't actually want to ever remember.

"Oh come on…he's a big sweetie and you'll love him death."

"Mariku would kill me if he found out, I mean, we swore it together. He even pricked me on the tip of my finger just so I couldn't go back on my word." Malik persisted to bring up negative reasons why he couldn't dance with the handsome man.

"Hey, what he doesn't know won't kill him, and I won't tell." Megan promised him and even crossed her heart so she couldn't go back on her word. Malik finally gave in to her persistant ways and she quickly ran off to retrieve the handsome dancer. Malik took his seat and waited more impatiently than anything for her to drag him back.

Just then, Megan walked out of the crowd holding Ryou by the hand. She left Ryou there with Malik and went off smiling and growing quite excited after pairing them up.

For a moment there was nothing but silence between the two males, but then it was broken when Ryou offered a smile and his hand to Malik. "Shall we dance then?" He said in a very sweet tone. Malik began to blush as he took the male's hand and they walked out onto the floor.

Malik looked away from Ryou shyly as they embraced eachother and stood waiting for the music to began. Malik was begging the gods for a slow song, but he received the complete opposite, a fast paced song blared from the large speakers.

Ryou looked to Malik and smiled. "Ready to take a stab at it?" He inquired. Malik looked at him in a quite confused manner for the expression was foreign to him. "Take a stab at it?" He quarked his brow at the other who chuckled at the expression and question of confusion. "I meant, are you ready to go?"

"Well, yeah." The instant after that was said, they began to dance, and it was very abrupt which surprised Malik who wasn't familiar with the pace of this song, but he began to get into it and get the hang of it.

Malik flashed a smile of enjoyment and was liking this more than he thought he would. This feeling was familiar whether it was the dance or his dance partner, but he still couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Well, there you have it. A long awaited chapter from me. Hope you enjoyed it! Plz review! I beg you! Jkjk


	8. Chapter 38

So we meet again do we? Its nice to see you all. I thought I might try to make something clear for you if you didn't get it earlier, all right? Okay, Ryou is dancing with Malik and Malik with Ryou, but Malik doesn't know that its Ryou because he looks totally different thanks to his physical changes, however, Ryou knows that he is dancing with Malik because Malik's physical appearance never changed and he looks just the same as he did. (cough cough weeze weeze) There you have it.

Malik imagined himself far away from the club and Egypt in a tropical place with a spray of green foliage surrounding a beautiful waterfall tinted a blue hue. The tips of the leaves and grasses were tipped with dew of the morning, and a slight breeze had picked up.

Malik also imagined himself floating across the cool water's surface. It was a crisp, refreshing cool that he hadn't felt in the longest time. Just then, a palid haired figure swam up beside him. They turned to one another and brought eachother into an embrace that couldn't be broken and they danced; their motions fluid-like as they went about the task.

He was too busy dreaming himself off somewhere else to notice the people around himself and Ryou who were cheering them on as they performed to their peak ability.

Just as Malik imagined himself nearing the other male, about to share a wonderful kiss with him, he heard a voice coming out of no where.

"You are quite the dancer."

The waterfall, the lush greenery, the blue sky; it all dissipated as Malik returned his thoughts to what they were. He opened his eyes and saw Ryou looking directly at him with those chocolate brown eyes that were so tempting Malik nearly took him there in front of the surrounding crowd.

"Eh?" That one noise escaped his velvet lips and caused him to blush insanely. Ryou chuckled lightly and repeated what he had said for his dancing partner. "Actually, you are the better dancer here." Malik remarked and smiled out of the corner of his mouth and shrugged.

"I only do what I enjoy." Ryou commented.

Malik looked away from Ryou once again. He couldn't bare to stare at the handsome man anymore. Malik was still crushed about leaving Ryou behind, or so he thought, and this very thought lingered in the back of his mind reminding him that he didn't want to fall in love anymore. He just couldn't do it anymore.

Ryou cocked his head to the side and looked at Malik softly with a hint of worry added to his expression. "Is something wrong?" Malik merely shook his head. The end of the song came and they struck their final pose, both of their bodies extremely close to one another's making Malik nervous again. The crowd cheered.

A slow sang came about next, this now giving them more room to talk than the song before. Ryou put his arms around Malik's waist and put his lower body rather close to the other hikari's and they danced. "Are you sure?" Ryou questioned with the same worries still present.

"Sure, I mean… I guess so…" Malik said feeling unsure about whether he was all right or not.

There was an awkward silence between them for a minute or so before Ryou interrupted it. "Well, we could introduce ourselves, or you could just tell me a bit about yourself." Ryou said hoping to at least hear what Malik had been doing in his absence.

"Well…I—I live here in Egypt with my…my twin brother…" Malik stuttered nervously, but was still yammering on regardless of how he felt or was acting.

"Really? I have a twin too." Ryou commented on the side bar. Malik nodded. "Yeah…well, his name is Mariku…" Malik continued on.

"Yes, and your name is Malik." Ryou said and looked off to the side lines where other couples were dancing. "Yes, my name is—" Malik paused and glanced back at the palid hair. "How did you--?" He paused again unable to think of an explaination for why he knew his name or how he had obtained that information.

"Just a guess." Ryou shrugged and smiled thinly at Malik.

"Good guess," Malik cocked his brow suspiciously at Ryou. "So, have you lived in Egypt long?" Ryou questioned next. Malik thought for a moment and then sighed, "No, I used to live somewhere else, but its not important."

"Well, I lived in Japan," Ryou whispered in Malik's ear and leaned his head on the male's shoulder. "Really?" Malik chuckled lightly and shook his head slightly. "I did at one point, but I ran away with Mariku…from someone that I feared…and I lfet someone behind that I loved." It was then that Ryou leaned back and saw that Malik was blushing profusely. "You didn't need to know that…" Malik rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged.

"Its okay, I left for similar reasons, and I too left someone that I loved very dearly." Ryou was actually surprised that Malik hadn't figured it out by now that it was him he was dancing with this entire time; confessing a feeling love to whom he thought was a complete stranger.

"Um…was she beautiful?" Malik inquired assuming the other male's former lover was a female. Ryou smiled sweetly at Malik and kissed him lightly on the cheek. He leant over to his ear and whispered, "He was a gorgeous creature…"

Ryou released Malik from his arms and walked off of the dance floor, disappearing into the flood of people. "Did he just say 'he'?" Malik too walked off of the floor. He glanced down at his watch and his eyes went wide. It was just after supper time and he was due back far earlier.

Malik saw the graceful hikari walk out of the club. He waved knowing he wouldn't have the favor returned, which saddened him, but he was happy he got to dance with the man. It was then that he realized something he had forgotten to say. "Oh crap, I forgot to thank him for paying for my drinks."

Malik bolted out of the club and looked around. Down the long dark street he spotted his angel and ran after him calling for him to wait. The palid hair turned down an alley way which was a short cut to his home that was not far off from the club. Malik skidded down the same alley way and spotted him again. "Hey!"

Ryou turned around and saw Malik stop short of him, trying hard to catch his breath. Ryou gave him a confused look and stood there a moment to hear what he had to say.

"Thank you for paying for my drinks….but," Malik opened his wallet and held out the exact amount what the total cost came to. "This is how much they cost."

Ryou pushed the money back to Malik. "Its not a big deal." Malik forced the money back in Ryou's direction persistantly. "I wouldn't feel right taking money from a total stranger. Just, please, take the money." Malik said and was still out of breath.

"We aren't strangers…" The palid hair whispered. Malik glanced up at him in a most confused and cute way. "Huh?" Ryou reached out a gentle hand and pushed the money back into Malik's fist and enclosed the currency in his hand. "I could never forget your face…and I couldn't forget your yami's either…"

The alluring hikari pivoted on his heel and walked away from him once again. Malik dropped down onto his knees in the dirt. He began to think that his mind was just playing tricks on him again, that none of this was real, that the figure walking away from him was only a figment of his imagination; the same that teased him in his dreams.

"Not again….wake up, Malik…" He whispered. Ryou stopped and stood there for he had heard Malik's soft words. "Is that was I am to you? Something you see in your dreams? I guess I should be flattered, but then again…I don't feel that way."

"What did you say?" Malik glanced up at the figure, tears now in his eyes fighting for freedom from his lavender orbs.

"You know, Malik….He tried to leave himself there, but deep down inside his old self is still with him…" Ryou mummbled and began to tremble.

"You aren't making sense…"

"It makes perfect sense, it might to you yet, but it will soon enough. In fact, perhaps if you opened your eyes to the world you might see him standing right before your eyes." Ryou could hear Malik behind him sobbing and it hurt him so to have his back turned on his former lover.

"Why can't I wake up…?" Malik sobbed quite loudly and was embracing himself for comfort he couldn't find from anyone else. "You are awake, Malik! You just can't grasp the reality!" Ryou said harshly.

"Reality? Ha! I left that in Japan, along with everything else." Malik sneered.

"Hm…I can't believe how foolish I was to think that maybe you would come after me, that you wouldn't forget me like I haven't forgotten you…" Those certain words caused Ryou to tremble more uncontrollably than before. His voice was also beginning to shake just the same.

"I wouldn't forget you…not ever," Malik said faintly.

"Just give up, if you can't realize who I am now, then there is no hope that you will." Ryou glanced back at Malik who was now back on his feet.

"I remember…" Malik began, completely ignoring what Ryou had said. "He looked different…I remember it all. His smell, his long beautiful white hair, his amazing body, all of it." Malik's lips quivered with each descriptive word that escaped his mouth.

"Well, maybe he wanted to leave you in Japan, maybe he wanted to forget and start new, but still….I couldn't." Ryou was now fighting back tears, and his heart which wanted to give itself to Malik once again, but he fought and didn't want to allow it.

Unfortunately, his tears did come, but Malik was too far away to see them. Oh what he would have given to be in Malik's arms at this one moment, but again, he wouldn't allow it, he couldn't allow it. Ryou quickly escorted himself out the other side of the alleyway and started to walk away a bit faster than before, as if walking away like this he could just leave it all behind once again.

Malik shot out of the alley way behind Ryou and called his name, "Ryou! Don't go!" Ryou broke down completely and bolted off towards his house which was now not too far off.

I shall leave you here and you can just guess what is going to happen next. Heeheehee. Have fun thinking of what is next to come! You'll never guess!


	9. Chapter 39

Well, here I find myself again writing another chapter. So, have any of you guessed what about to happen in this chapter? If you haven't, go ahead and read on unless you feel you are right or you want to be right in which case you just don't bother. Do as you please.

"Damn it, stop!" Malik yelled at Ryou as he had taken up chase after Ryou had turned on his heel and ran towards home. Malik leapt to catch Ryou several times, but only came to face with the dirt, in which he would scramble to his feet and continue to chase the other hikari.

Ryou darted into a two story home that was near as big as Mariku's and Malik's, bolting the door closed behind himself. Malik rammed right into the door stupidly and fell sharply to the ground. He winced as he sat forward and rubbed his shoulder which he had used to attempt to break in the door. "Ryou, please! Let me in!" He got to his feet and started to bang on the door.

Ryou ran up to his bedroom, but collapsed to the floor in tears before he ever made it to his bed which would have been more comfortable to be on than the floor.

Bakura had been in the middle of a perfectly good dream when he had heard the loud sobbing noise coming from inside his house and the loud banging noises from the outside.

He walked by Ryou's room, but paused and paced a few steps back to see Ryou laying there on the cream colored carpet in tears. He knelt down beside his hikari and pushed his bangs out of the way. "What is it now, you emotional little worm," He said harshly but jokingly.

Ryou thrust himself up from the floor and embraced his yami's waist tightly as he cried on. Bakura held him in a protective way as he let the pallid hair male cry in his arms.

Malik sunk down in front of the door in tears. "What the hell are you doing?" Malik glanced up to see a silhouetted figure draped in black robes staring down at him with a glint in his eye from the street lamps. Malik came to realize that it was Mariku who had come upon him in this weak state.

"What are you doing out here…?" Malik wiped his tears on his sleeve and sat up a bit further against the door.

"To put it plainly, I was bored as hell and I needed something to do." Mariku for once in his life, honestly said to his hikari. "Now, what the hell are you doing in front of this house?" He questioned his hikari. It was obvious by now that Mariku either didn't know who's house this was or he had forgotten all together who it was that lived here.

Mariku waited impatiently for an answer that Malik was not about to give. Maybe it was best that he said nothing at all and just let life go on with or without Ryou. Mariku delivered a swift kick to his hikari's lower back causing him to cry out just the slightest.

"You know what? I am in a foul mood at the moment and you aren't making things any better. Now, get your ass off of the ground and lets go." Mariku said angrily to his Light.

Malik laid there in protest and refused to move from that spot. He still had tears in his eyes, half from pain and the other from seeing Ryou. Mariku delivered a second blow to his hikari who again cried out.

From upstairs, Ryou would have sworn he had heard something, but Bakura only told him that he was hearing things. "Why did I have to see him…why…?" Ryou whispered to himself and continued to sob.

Bakura wished he had known what Ryou was going on about, but the link between them was shut off keeping him out of Ryou's thoughts. All he could do was hold Ryou and assure him that things would be better tomorrow.

"Stupid fuck! Do you like getting your ass kicked?" Mariku raged at his hikari who was laying, hurt and still heavy with tears. "I don't know what the fuck your problem is but you had better spit it out before I kick the shit out of you further!" He screamed fitfully.

He stopped and thought for a moment. He stared at the door and looked even more pissed now that before. "Does it have something to do with the fag who lives here?"

Without giving Malik any time to answer his question, Mariku began banging threateningly and quite loudly on the front door, which was still bolted shut. Bakura heard the ruckus from the first story of the house and went down to see what it was about.

"What the hell do you want?" Mariku heard come out from behind the bolted door. Mariku clenched his fists tightly and glared at the door. "What the hell did you do to make him cry?" Mariku retorted just as angrily and loudly as he smacked his hand against the door.

Bakura jumped back when he heard the crash against the wood and his fist tightened as well. "What the hell did I do? Are you kidding me? Why you--!" Bakura was on the verge of tearing away the door and beating the agressor until he either appologized to Ryou or was no longer even breathing.

Malik clung to Mariku's robes as he begged for Mariku to leave this matter behind and go home. Mariku kicked him off of his robes and again banged his fist against the door. Bakura smashed back on the door. "I did nothing! It is you who should be appologizing and if you don't plan on that, then you had better get the hell off of my property!" He yelled back through the beaten wood.

"I didn't do anything you bastard! You get your ass out here and appologize!" Mariku demanded and pointed to his hikari to make some sort of point to Bakura. Malik was still clinging to Mariku like a parasite, begging for him to stop this foolishness and go home with him.

Bakura was steadily becoming more annoyed than he had been. "Jerk!" Mariku yelled and kicked the door. Bakura ignored him completely and went back upstairs to check on Ryou who was now sleeping near peacefully on his bed with only a few tears lingering on his features.

Mariku was really upset now and wanted the ignorant bastard to appologize to his hikari and at this instant. He walked around the side of the house and started to climb up the side of the house, clinging to each brick as he went steadily up its side. (like spider man!) Malik looked on at him hoping that Mariku would not fall and hurt himself or even kill himself.

"Don't you dare fall, Mariku Ishtar!" Malik called to him from below. Mariku nodded as he fell into an unlit room through its open window. He looked around and couldn't make out more than a dresser, a mirror, and a bed, which all stood out well in the darkness.

The door quickly opened and at the room's entrance stood the tall, figure of a man, the same who had yelled at him through the wood of the door. "You! Appologize now!" Mariku said persistantly.


	10. Chapter 40

Hello, hello, hello! Today hasn't been such a terrible horrible day and I can actually write this chapter without interruption from other family members. I think that is just totally awesome. For clarification later on, there are parenthesis behind Bakura and Mariku's thoughts later and that is just so you don't get confused on who is thinking one. Just thought you should know.

It was a new day and the city was vibrant and busy as everyday usually was in this city. Today, Mariku and Malik had decided to pay a little visit to the market. Malik wanted fresh fruit to go with lunch which was at least two hours from now. Malik was a much better cook now, but only because he wasn't allowed to actually touch the stove. He was only allotted that privilege on the days that Mariku didn't feel much like cooking his own meals and Malik's just the same.

Malik was dressed down for the warm weather to come later in the day not long from now, but Mariku was dressed as he had been for the past year, heavy black robes only these he wore today had a hint of blue to them, but not enough to make a big deal about.

Just as Mariku and his hikari were out in the market, Bakura was as well. He had left not long ago, leaving Ryou to himself for a little while he 'foraged' for food so to speak. He was again in all blue, this being his new favorite color without any warning. He looked quite yummy with his new bronze tan newly acquired, and his shorter hair like Ryou's exactly, this also newly acquired.

He was looking for bread, and fruit of some sort that would make a decent lunch for today. Nearby there, Malik was looking at some wonderful-tasting looking Apples, but couldn't decide which ones to take. Some were bruised, some were broken on the skin, but they still had fabulous color to them. Mariku's brow twitched as he impatiently watched his hikari look amongst the fruit which to him looked all the same. "Hurry it up! It doesn't take forever to pick out a few apples!" He snapped at Ryou with his arms crossed over his chest and his foot tapping loudly in the dust.

"I know, but they have to be the best. I also know that you are a picky eater and I'll regret it later if I don't pick carefully." Malik said making no sense to Mariku who just wanted to get out of the sun.

"They are all the same type of fruit," He said and packed a pile of apples into Malik's arms and dragged him away from the stand before its owner could see that he hadn't paid for the fruit. Malik knew what his yami was doing, but he didn't want to complain for that would only upset Mariku to the point of a beating for complaining.

Mariku was pushing Malik so harshly that it caused him to trip up and fall, Mariku also toppling over on top of him knocking the wind out of him. Both yami and hikari lay there in a heap of cloth, moaning as they lay there for a moment.

The disoriented yami sat up and rubbed his head and groaned then glancing down at Malik through one half-lidded eye. "You clumsy idiot, watch where you're going!" He yelled at his hikari and tried to stand up, but only fell back on top of poor Malik, squishing him a bit and causing him to gasp out painfully when Mariku again came crashing down on his aching body.

Suddenly, a long shadow cast itself over the two still on the ground. Mariku looked up at the tall figure looming over them both and quirked his brow. "You really need to use your eyes and _try_ to see where you are going." Bakura said and just stood there staring at the two of them. Malik didn't bother looking up because he already knew who it was hovering over them and he didn't care much to look up at Ryou's mirror image.

Bakura nonchalantly stepped over the two entangled men and walked on as if they weren't there. "Mind your own damn business!" Mariku yelled after the arrogant male.

The thief turned slightly and looked back emotionlessly at Mariku. "It is my business when you are in my way."

"Arrogant bastard," Mariku said quite loudly and shook his fist at the male.

Bakura started to walk again, "Fucker!" He retorted and flipped Mariku off over his shoulder. Mariku growled and struggled to get to his feet while still on top of Malik making this harder. "Why I ought to--!" Malik shook a bit knocking Mariku back down. "Just stop it, Mariku." He said disinterested in having another battle commence itself right in the middle of the city.

The tomb keeper rolled off of Malik who complained of it hurting, but Mariku completely ignored him. The sandy blonde Egyptian had other things to do that seemed like a lot more fun than worrying about his hikari. "Watch and learn, Malik." He whispered and crept off. Malik sighed and lowered his head into the dirt. "Maybe I don't want to learn…wait, learn what?" He glanced back up just in time to see Mariku run past Bakura at a hastened speed.

Bakura had felt the breeze and also the absence of his wallet from the back pocket of his denim trousers. He rolled his eyes and cast a spell to freeze the predictable thief, but Mariku was one step ahead and was able to break his spell which surprised the tomb robber just a bit. No one had ever been able to break that spell.

"Nice try, idiot," Mariku was thinking to himself as he darted off down another street. Bakura sighed deeply and didn't want to chase after the keeper, but had no choice so he picked up after him and also ran down that same street.

He skidded to a halt once he had reached this empty street. The air was stiff with silence and not even a slight breeze was heard in the empty space. Bakura glanced around slowly as he watched for the slightest amount of movement. Just then, he pivoted and tackled the keeper who had crept up behind him.

Mariku struggled and was able to kick the robber off and scampered up the side of a building to the height of its roof. He laughed loudly at the robber on the ground and smirked. Bakura too began to laugh which caused a certain amount of alarm to Mariku. "What the hell are you laughing at? I stole your wallet right out of your pocket. Sure you got me when I came up from behind, but—"

"You do realize that you've taken an empty piece of leather, correct?" He continued to laugh at Mariku who looked quite stupid right about now to him.

"What the hell are you talking about…?" He glanced down at the wallet in his hand. "There's nothing in it you idiot." Bakura returned and shook his head with a sly smile on his face.

Mariku glanced into the wallet and began to growl as he realized that the wallet he had stolen was empty and there was nothing of value in it besides that. It was truly just a plain piece of scrap leather Bakura had probably sewn together.

Mariku hurled the wallet back at him and growled still as anger filled him to the brink of its boiling point. Bakura turned out of the street laughing and couldn't help but smile at the other's utter stupidity. He saw Malik still sitting on the ground, who then looked up at him as he passed by. Bakura slowed his pace as he passed the other. "Tell your friend to learn how to steal things the_ correct_ way…" he said and walked on.

Malik turned his attention to Mariku who was still perched atop the roof of the apartment building. "You can come down now, Mariku!" He yelled to him and stood up off the ground.

"Boku, wait!" He called after and tried to catch up. Bakura turned a threatening look to Malik and said, "Don't ever call me that." He turned his glance away and continued to walk trying his hardest to ignore the little one following him. "I apologize for the way he acted, Bakura." Malik said with sincerity in his tone.

"I'm not!" Mariku yelled from the roof top. "I refuse to apologize to that stuck up bastard!" He shook his fist at Bakura when he had looked back at the keeper.

"Forget about it Malik. It doesn't matter whether he apologizes or not, he obviously doesn't care and I'm still trying not to." Bakura stopped and looked back at Ryou over his shoulder.

Malik's head was lowered slightly and his arms were held at his waist in a slumped over way. "I can't believe you followed us here…" He sighed and shook his head.

"Follow you? I didn't follow you anywhere. After Ryou and I left the house, we got on the first flight out of Japan and just decided to come here. We did it to get away from you and your damn yami, but obviously this wasn't the wisest of choices."

"Tell me Bakura, is this supposed to be a sign of some sort?" Malik questioned as he took up walking beside the pallid haired male. "What the hell are you trying to say?" Bakura quirked his brow and slipped his hands into his pockets. "You know very well what I'm saying, don't act stupid." Malik returned a bit harshly in his tone.

Bakura stopped in his tracks and stared awkwardly at Malik until he was at least given an answer. Malik sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Maybe it is destined that you two still be lovers, same for Ryou and me." Malik explained tersely.

Bakura gave Malik a sour look and grimaced at him. "Listen Malik, Ryou has had the hardest time with trying to forget everything that happened exactly one year ago. You hurt him that day, and I don't want it to happen again, so maybe it would be best if you just stayed away from him." Bakura replied.

"Nothing bad will come of this, Bakura."

"How I am I supposed to know this? He was already in enough pain as it was when he saw you and you didn't realize who it was until he basically gave you the answer." Bakura spat at Malik.

"It's not my fault that his physical appearance changed as far as so I couldn't recognize him."

"Malik, he doesn't need any more problems than he already has."

"Malik, stop cavorting with the enemy!" Mariku yelled still from atop the apartment building.

"Listen, he is still struggling to give up who we was because he doesn't want those memories of pain—"

"Pain?" Malik looked sharply at Bakura through eyes considerably wider than before. "Malik!" Mariku screamed from the roof again. "Shut up, Mariku!" Malik retorted and gave his yami a most disturbing glare.

Bakura sighed and rolled his eyes as he slipped his large hands into his denim pockets and started to walk. Malik turned back and looked at him. "Where are you going?" He inquired and tried to follow him.

"You can figure things out for yourself. I'm done baby sitting you and your damn yami. I'm going home and I had better not catch you following me." Malik stopped in his tracks and watched as Bakura disappeared down the long street.

It was then that Mariku leapt down from the roof of the apartments and attacked his hikari and beat him into the ground. "Don't you ever tell me to shut up!" Mariku growled as he hit him again. "Stop it! That hurts!" Malik covered his head and was curled up. "That's just a small sample of what I'm going to do to you when we get home!" Mariku retorted and dragged his hikari to his feet roughly.

Over the course of the one year, Mariku had come across various new ways of torture and pain of which he loved to test on Malik. Down in their basement, he had three sets of chains set up in separate areas of the room. It looked fairly nice, but it truly wasn't.

Usually, he would drag his hikari down there and strip him down to his skin and would either chain him to the bed, the wall, or a long wooden table of which he did not often use. He liked the wall or the bed options a bit more.

Today, for Malik's rudeness in the market, he was going to punish him by chaining to the wall so that Malik couldn't run and couldn't do much of anything at all.

"No, not the wall again…you did that three days ago…" Malik put up a bit of a fight even though he knew his yami could definitely overpower his small frame of a body.

"Three days was obviously too long of a break for you." Mariku returned as he clasped the heavy metal bands around his hikari's wrists and ankles. He walked over to a tall oak cabinet and opened his two doors. Inside were various torture devices and some that didn't seem like they would be used for torture at all, this referring to the baseball bat and fly swatter.

Mariku stroked his chin as he looked over the various objects. Malik saw a few that he had his eyes on and gulped in a frightened manner, hoping that none of them would be used on him as of yet.

Mariku smirked as he picked up the whip, a box of daggers, and a few leather straps. This was his way of being sexually active with Malik without actually doing so since they weren't on the bed this time.

He glanced over his shoulder at Malik as he held the objects over his head for Malik's notice. The hikari's eyes widened a bit as he took note of each object. He felt a knot forming in his throat, that or else his heart had just given out, he couldn't decide which it was.

Mariku removed his robes and tossed them aside on the bed so as not to stain them in Malik's crimson. He approached his quaking hikari and began to lace the straps around his chest, legs, arms and neck. "I don't know what's gotten into you lately, but you won't act like this when I'm done with you," Mariku whispered in his hikari's ear as he tightened the last leather strap onto Malik's body.

He leapt into the air not far from Malik and spun around in the air, kicking Malik sharply in the chest, knocking the wind from him. He threw heavy punches and kicked his hikari repeatedly, even a few times in the groin which was obviously painful from the way his face was twisted and from each cry that escaped his bleeding lips.

Malik was on his knees and panting painfully with his hands suspended above his head. His form was riddled with bruises and open cuts and small wounds that were bleeding, his crimson running at the pull of gravity. His complexion was that of a pallid color lightly tinted by the crimson color and black and blue bruises.

Mariku opened his box of daggers and took one from its resting place. He looked it over, its silver surface giving off a reflection of his beaten hikari on its surface. He knelt down before Malik and lifted his chin until their eyes met, Malik's being half lidded with pain in both lavender orbs.

Mariku took the tip of the blade to Malik's chest and slowly allowed it to creep across his flesh, drawing out his crimson color. The sadistic yami licked the blood from the blade and smirked at Ryou and kissed him lightly. His mouth wandered off to the side of Malik's face and then to his ear in which he whispered, "You brought this upon yourself…" and then licked Malik's ear lightly.

Just then, Mariku's eyes widened as he gasped out and started to fall back with both hands on his stomach. Malik had taken this opportunity of having Mariku's guard down in order to deliver a swift blow to his stomach, using his knee, to get his attention and also for a little pay back after what he had, had to endure.

"How dare you-?" He glared at his Light dangerously and scrambled away from his hikari. "Shut up and listen to me…do you want to know why I am acting differently? More defiant maybe? It's because I saw Ryou and Bakura here in Egypt…" Malik winced and leaned back against the wall.

"Hmph…I already knew that. I tried to follow Ryou home one evening, but it didn't work out and I didn't get to speak with Bakura. However, that still gives you no right to hit me." Mariku was done for tonight and was exhausted, but he didn't mind because he had at least gotten some tears and a few good screams out of his hikari. He released the chains letting Malik fall face down onto the concrete floor in exhaustion and pain. "You should take a shower or something. You look terrible." Mariku said and left, taking up his robes from the bed and continuing out of the house for a much needed walk.

It had grown considerably dark outside, but Mariku didn't care. He sighed deeply, "Thanks a lot, Malik. You didn't need to remind me that they were here…" He thought to himself as he walked on down the dimly lit street.

Bakura was stationed at his home at the moment and was quietly sitting on a comfortable chair in his living room. He had been there ever since he had gotten home and hadn't really moved since then. He had occasionally checked in on Ryou, but had lazily done so through his link. At least Ryou was doing better than he was at the moment.

"Why couldn't they just get out of our lives?" Bakura thought to himself and leaned over onto the palm of his hand, giving off a small sigh as he did so.

"I knew I should have just taken my life when I had the chance…" (Mariku)

"Why did he have to follow me here?" (Bakura)

"Why did he have to follow me here?" (Mariku)

Bakura glanced around his living room and saw that there really was nothing to do with his time and decided that maybe a little fresh air would make him feel a bit better. He grabbed his favorite black trench coat and left his house figuring that Ryou would be fine on his own.

Okay, that's the end of this chapter. I know I know, freaky chapter with the torture and all, but there were other parts ya know. I thought this chapter was kinda fun other than the torture scene which made me feel bad for Malik. Anyways, plz review. Lata!


	11. Chapter 41

Hello all of you wonderful reviewers…or whoever is left. Thanks for your reviews; at least some of you aren't lazy. I guess the story got a bit boring or something…I only get some reviews now, but its better than nothing at all I guess.

Mariku had settled on the ground near a building and was looking up at the crescent moon that loomed in the navy sky of the night to accompany the stars. He felt so at peace at the moment, but this feeling was not meant to linger.

It was then, that the pallid haired robber had walked past him at a slow pace, casually glancing over at him as he went. "It's you again," Mariku growled. Bakura stopped and peered back at him. "Look, I don't want to have anything to do with you, so let me just go on my way and we'll leave it at that." The taller yami said in an exhausted tone.

"I don't think so." Mariku replied and gained height against Bakura but notably shorter still.

Bakura rolled his eyes and slipped his hands into the pockets of his trench coat. "You are exactly like someone I once knew," he said with a hint of laughter in his tone. He started off again, but found himself held back by the robbed figure's strong grip on his arm. "Don't you dare try to sluff this off." Mariku said in an annoyed tone.

"At the moment I don't care to deal with you or anything," Bakura pulled his arm free of the strong grip and rubbed the area lightly. "And I don't want to get into any fights anyways." He finished.

"No, I want to settle our little score right here and right now." Mariku persisted to pester the other.

"Why not just leave me alone and get on with your life, huh?" Bakura tried to persuade. Mariku tightened his fists and began to shake as he lowered his hooded head a bit. "Because you made me look like a fool and that is unforgivable. No one makes me into a fool, no one."

Bakura began to laugh at Mariku. He bent over and placed his hands on his knees to keep standing because he was laughing so hard, doing so intentionally just to piss the tomb keeper off. "You made yourself out to be a fool, you took the empty wallet. All I did was tell you that it was empty, making it out to be your fault and not mine." Bakura's laughter refused to cease, but he stopped himself just so as not to kill himself from laughter. Still, it was all too funny in his eyes.

"You should have kept your damn mouth closed while you at least had the chance, maybe then I would not have tried to get at you." Mariku growled at him to counter his laughter.

"Well, maybe I was protecting myself so that I would not be the fool. So, I say the _real _was found out this day." Bakura retorted. "Which was you." He said with a finishing touch.

"Fuck you!" Mariku lunged forward at Bakura, unable to control himself any longer. In the extent of his hand was a pure gold dagger lined with jewels that he had pulled out of the sheath hanging from his belt. He tackled Bakura to the ground and tried to put the knife into him, it dangling just above Bakura's chest.

Bakura gripped the hand that had the dagger in it and was trying to force it off of him, but also keep from getting killed by the threatening weapon. "Get off you idiot!" Bakura threw Mariku away from his upper body.

As Mariku was thrown back he took his chance to force the blade into Bakura's left leg. The keeper then let go of the dagger's handle and threw a good punch at Bakura. The tomb robber winced as he pulled the dagger out of his leg and tossed it away so that the other couldn't try that again.

He too threw a good punch and smacked Mariku directly in the nose causing it to bleed ever so slightly. As Bakura tried to get to his knees at least, Mariku crawled up to Bakura and kneed him in the groin to get back at him, but it barely fazed Bakura as the pallid hair focused on biting the other, biting him on the neck.

Mariku felt a wonderful sensation course through his body from the bite in his most vulnerable of places. While Mariku was off guard, Bakura gladly got in another blow to the face knocking Mariku back a few feet on the ground.

Mariku groaned as he pushed himself up off of the ground and was trying to shake of the blow. He glanced a little ways ahead of himself and saw his dagger lying not far from him. He crawled over to it and grabbed it quickly before Bakura could come after him again.

The keeper quickly pivoted on his knee and had the other male by his pallid locks with the blade held tight against his neck, but not enough to make him bleed yet. "Don't make any sudden movements or you will have bigger problems than you already do." Mariku warned as he tried to catch his breath. Bakura was doing the same and was still as he looked for a way out of this predicament so that he could finish the fight and walk away with his life for Ryou's sake.

"I don't care if you kill me or not…I am not afraid to die."

"You are all talk," Mariku replied.

Bakura reached up quickly and thrust the knife out of Mariku's hand and turned to tackle him. They rolled quite a ways and then stopped with Mariku sitting dominantly on top of Bakura with his tightened fist held high over his face.

It was then that Mariku got a true glance at the man he had been fighting with. His fist was lowered as he stared at him in disbelief. "Bakura…?" He whispered. "Is that you…?"

Bakura's exhausted breath was heavy as his chest rose and fell under Mariku's other hand. He was also in pain and his wounded leg was still bleeding. Mariku lightly touched Bakura's features and ran his fingers through his short hair in disbelief. This was not the same man he remembered leaving behind in Japan.

"Don't touch me!" Bakura pushed his hand away angrily. "I-I'm sorry I injured you…." Mariku quickly apologized. "Why don't you just get the hell off of me?"

Mariku completely ignored what he was said and was just thinking of way to show him that he was sorry. He held out his hand over Bakura's leg to heal the wound. Bakura shook around to try and get him off, this only hurting him further. "Damn it, hold still."

Bakura refused to hold still and continued to try and shake him off of his body. Mariku got tired of trying to do it the polite way and roughly grabbed Bakura's leg, causing the robber to cry out as he healed the wound in this manner.

"What the hell is your problem?" Bakura yelled angrily at Mariku. He pushed him off and sat up. He looked down at his leg and saw that it was indeed healed, but that didn't deter his rage towards the other.

"Well, I see you've grown less trusting. I don't blame you." Mariku said and sat up beside Bakura. "So what if I have? Not like it matters, all you want to do is kick my ass anyways." Bakura brushed off his sleeves.

"Beating you into a bloodied pulp was everything…but not anymore. Not now that I know who you are." Mariku said and tipped his head onto his shoulder as he leaned back a bit and stared at Bakura's beauty that was only magnified by the street lamp and the light of the moon.

"Who are you? You seem to know who I am." Bakura inquired and looked in the hooded figure's direction. Mariku crawled a short distance away from him and lowered his head in shame. "I guess this means you've forgotten…" Mariku mumbled and felt tears coming on.

Bakura rolled his eyes and got up to walk over to Mariku. He knelt down in front of him and gave him a calmer look than what he had before. "How could I know if you keep your damn face covered." Mariku reached up to his hood and grasped its edges tightly in both gloved hands. Mariku leaned back on his legs and looked down at the ground. He reached into his hood and wiped away a tear that had escaped him, accidentally of course.

"Remove your cloak, unless you prefer that your identity remain a secret…and if that is so, I don't feel a need to spend anymore time here." Bakura said and leaned back on his legs as well as he waited.

"I want…I want you to unmask me… but make sure you think for a moment before you do…" Mariku whispered through his hood.

"Why is that?" Bakura questioned and held his hand in suspension for a moment.

"Because…this is important…to me at least…" Mariku admitted.

Bakura nodded and reached up slowly, grasping the sides of the hood. Mariku flinched and turned his head to the side and then noticed the new light as his hood was dropped back behind his head. Bakura's eyes widened and Mariku's drew tighter with tears escaping him more quickly than before.

Bakura reached up to his features and touched his cheek softly in disbelief. All of this time, he had had no idea that this was the man hidden beneath the robes of black.

"I'm sorry…" Mariku whispered with his face still lowered and turned to the side away from Bakura.

I shall drop off here for this chapter. You shall have to wait to see what happens between both of them in the next chapter. Cliffhanger….mwahahahaha! Lata!


	12. Chapter 42

Hehe, any idea of what is next to come? Well, I'll just shut my mouth and let you read on because I know you are quite anxious to find out. Toodles until the bottom.

"I…I have to go…" Bakura said with a shaky voice. He quickly kissed Mariku and then backed off and walked away quickly. He was quite shaken up to see his lover after an entire year had gone by. It was just a bit too much for him at the moment.

Mariku touched his lips softly where Bakura had left his mark. He smiled thinly even though all it was, was a small kiss that must have meant nothing from the scared robber. "He looked at me as if I were a ghost," Mariku whispered and stood on his feet. He took the long way home and did a little thinking, unlike Bakura who was quick to return to his own sanctuary to hide from reality for the remainder of the night.

Three days had passed since that night and neither yami nor hikari had spoken to one another. While either hikari was able to get out in the world, the two yamis' had stayed pent up in their separate sanctuaries. Bakura moved more freely about his home, but Mariku had trapped himself in his room in a rather depressed manner than Bakura.

The sandy blond yami had been in his bed for each day without fail and hadn't budge for anything more than to go the restroom or to sneak something from the refrigerator down in the kitchen. Malik didn't much like that his yami was just laying there and sulking like he had been for the three days time. He didn't understand why he was acting this way either.

Malik approached his bedroom doors and knocked on them lightly, then peering into the room to see him turned on his side. The curtains were drawn and the room was dark and the air was chilled enough to make Malik shiver. He poked his head into the room. "I think you need to get out of bed already. Maybe you should go clubbing with me later. You can go pick up chics and stuff, just forget about Bakura, you know?" Malik offered.

Mariku turned to Malik and hurled a small marble statue at his door towards Malik who quickly drew his head out of the door and was against the wall opposite Mariku's room. "It's not that easy!" He heard from behind the doors.

"You know you want to, Mariku! Just get up and get dressed." Malik walked away from his doors and went to get himself dressed up for the occasion. Mariku stared up at his ceiling and thought for a good moment. "Well…I do need something to drink…" He considered and then got out of his bed to get dressed.

"Are you going to be okay, Bakura?" Ryou inquired and put his hand on his yami's shoulder. Bakura nodded and stood from his chair in Ryou's office in the back of the club. "Maybe you just need some time to think. I guess it wasn't very smart of me to drag you here when you aren't feeling up to it." Ryou shrugged and smiled slightly at Bakura.

Mariku walked in on the club scene to see that nothing had changed and that it was the same boring place he had come before only wanting to drown his sorrows in alcohol. He was ready to repeat last time only without the dancing with girls' part.

He got several glances from other girls in the club that he had never seen before. They were probably only looking at his drop dead gorgeous body. He was wearing a tight black shirt that mimicked a vest and left a slight midriff that showed off his great looking stomach; a pair of denim pants that had been dyed blood red and were low at the waist; and a pair of black leather boots that reached up just below his knees; and last but not least, his favorite gold bangles that completed ever single outfit he owned. He felt foolish in this certain outfit, but he hadn't bothered to say anything about it to Malik so that the hikari could have done it for him in time.

He took to a small booth that was somewhere very badly out of sight where sat himself and tried to flag down a waitress, which he did, and it was the same waitress he had encountered the first time he had come to this club.

"What can I get you?" She inquired and held out a small pad and pen to take his order.

"The hardest drink you have in this place and make sure to bring me more than one this time." He said and leaned forward on his crossed arms that were set on the table. "You got it," She said with a smile and went to retrieve his order.

He looked out to the dance floor. It wasn't as crowded as all of the other times he had come, probably because it was a weekday and those days usually weren't as busy as they would have been on the weekend. Standing out the most towards the middle of the floor was of course Ryou dancing with Megan just like always.

"Eh…if I know Ryou is here all of the time, why the hell do I bother coming here?" He thought to himself and looked away because the hikari only reminded him of his former lover. However, he did happen to glance back at them whilst they danced. "Dancing brilliantly as usual…gah…" he said quietly.

Through the well dressed doors came Malik who just happened to be wearing the exact same thing as his yami. He glanced off at the dance floor and spotted Ryou just like he always was able to. It was nothing new that Ryou was out there again on the floor.

"Ah, there is he again…dancing with Megan. Yep, he hates me for sure." He veered his sight away from the floor and somehow spotted Mariku in the furthest reaches of the room. "Wonder why he's all the way back there…" Malik shrugged and headed off for Mariku's table.

"Hello, Mariku. Mind if I sit down?" Malik asked and stood in front of his yami looking down upon the still depressed other.

"Yes, I mind. What the hell are you doing here?" Mariku snapped at his hikari. Malik sat down regardless of what Mariku had said and looked at him from across the table sympathetically. "I thought maybe you could use a drinking buddy."

Mariku mumbled something that didn't sound as pleasant as it should be, but Malik would expect that from his yami especial in the state of depression he was in.

Not far off of the dance floor, Megan had spotted Bakura sitting quitely at the bar by himself. He had a frosted tequila glass in his one hand and was leant back against the bar, looking out over the lighter crowd of the evening.

She left the dance floor and approached him carefully so as not to startle him or scare him away. "I know you are a good dancer, Bakura…would you like to dance with me?" She offered suddenly, causing Bakura to jump just ever so slightly, but not enough to be noticed.

His thin figure circled the rim of the green tinted glass boredly and glanced up at Megan who was wearing a whispful black dress with a black mesh fabric that ran the length of her long body. "I don't really want to dance." He said calmly and focused back on the glass.

"Tell you what, if you dance with me at least once, I won't bug you for the rest of the evening. Deal?" Megan held out her hand and waited patiently for Bakura to give her an answer.

Just then, Missy called to Megan from the other end of the bar and waved. Bakura took Megan's hand and shook it firmly, "Deal." He said and pulled her out to the floor. Missy had by then come over to that end of the bar and was pouting that Megan had walked off before she had even spoken another word to her, which made her feel ignored. "Meanie…." She crossed her arms and sat there to impatiently wait for their return.

Malik looked out over the room and then looked back at Mariku somewhat without making any actualy eye contact. "So, did you order a drink already?" Mariku nodded. "Mind if we share?" He asked again. Mariku cocked his brow at his hikari and looked at him more directly. "You've never had anything this strong to drink before, in fact, I highly doubt you've ever had anything to drink. I usually see you drinking soda or water." Mariku commented.

"Well, there was that one time when I popped the top on one of your wine bottles that was in the back of the—" Malik paused realizing what he had just told Mariku in order to defend himself. Big mistake. Mariku growled heavily at his hikari and looked ready to pounce and kill when the waitress came with Mariku's drink.

"Oh, hi, Malik." She said kindly as she set the frosted glass down on the glassy surface of the table. "Hi, Janie." Malik replied with a kind smile held on his own features. This was accompanied by relief that someone had interveined before Mariku could have skinned him alive.

"How are you today, sweetie?" She asked cutely and held her tray close to her body. "I'm doing fine, what of you?" Malik returned kindly. "Liar…" Mariku muttered and looked aside as he sipped his drink quietly.

"Do you want something to drink, Malik?" She inquired and held out her pad of paper and pen. "I'll have the usual, please." He winked at the waitress who winked back and went to get his order.

"Oh my god, you like her don't you?" Mariku all too quickly assumed. Malik looked at his yami with wide eyes and bright red tint to his cheeks. "I do not, we are just friends and nothing more." Malik said defensively.

"Sure, and I'm the great Pharaoh of Egypt, right…" Mariku taunted and sipped his drink with a smug look on his face as he knew this was getting to his hikari who looked most embarrassed and a bit upset that he was being teased over nothing.

Malik turned away from his yami angrily; Mariku only laughed. It was then that the hikari had spotted his lover's yami out dancing with another. He smirked and looked back at Mariku who gave him a confused look. He pointed out towards the floor and snickered. "Looks like you've got competition." He knew that this would most likely piss his yami off enough and that is what made him laugh inside.

Mariku sighed and leaned his head on the palm of his vacant hand. "Not anymore…I think he may have tossed me aside." He said sadly and encircled his finger around the rim of his own glass. "Then why don't you dance with one of the beautiful maidens in this room who are awaiting a knight in shining dance shoes?" Malik said almost jokingly.

"I don't want to dance with them…" He said softly. "I want to dance with him…" He looked out at Bakura and just stared longingly at him.

The music dimmed to an end and some were exiting the floor. "Thanks for the dance, you can go now if you want, Bakura." Megan said and smiled at him sweetly. "Megan!" Missy called from the bar now that she was sure she had her friend's attention. Megan glanced back at her and saw Missy saying something quite loudly pointing to the back of the room. "Look in the far corner at the booth!" She had yelled. Megan looked in the directed area of her friend's attention and spotted the two Ishtars sitting in a booth, Mariku slumped over on the table beside his hikari. "I didn't expect to see them here."

Megan started off towards their table with Missy not far behind her. They stopped in front of the table and looked cutely at both boys almost kind of shyly. "Hey Malik , wanna dance?" Megan asked first. Missy stomped her foot childishly and glared at Megan in a huff. "I want to dance with Malik. You can have Mariku." Megan and Missy exchanged harsh looks and even growled at one another.

"You can be so petty you little--!" Megan had begun to say when she was interrupted. "Ladies, please!" Malik said blushingly and tried to ease the tension between them.

"I said that you could dance with Malik." Missy retorted.

"I don't want to dance with Mariku. Besides, I asked Malik first." Megan returned.

Mariku rolled his eyes and just stared stupidly at the two girls. "I feel so loved…" He said to himself and sighed. Missy ripped Malik out of the booth aggressively and dragged the little hikari off. Megan flipped Missy off and looked back at Mariku with the sweetest and most adorable face, someone completely different than who she was just a moment ago. Mariku started to slide further into the booth just to get away from the crazed bipolar female.

"Do you want to dance then?" She reached out a seemingly gentle hand to him. "I don't much feel like dancing." He replied and again slide a bit further into the rounded booth. "I won't make you, but if you ever feel like dancing, just come and find me, okay?"

Megan turned and just as she had, Mariku had caught a glimpse of his former lover staring at him from the bar where he had been stationed before. The keeper saw this as an opportunity to make Bakura as jealous as he had been when he saw Bakura dancing with another person.

Quickly he grabbed Megan by the arm, her quickly glancing back at him quite surprised. Mariku smiled at her and cocked one brow slyly. "Actually, I'll take you up on that offer, right now." Mariku said. "That's the spirit," Megan replied with a happy little grin without seeing what he was doing.

They walked out onto the floor, Bakura's glance never leaving his tricky lover. He corked a brow and wondered what Mariku was up to; he had never seen his lover dancing with another female before since he thought that all women were repulsive and evil. Now Mariku had his attention.

To this certain song, Mariku began to play out some very heavy moves that he would have only used on Bakura and was actually feeling sick to his stomach for perfoming such moves on a woman like this. He would have much preferred doing this to Bakura, but that is who he was trying to make jealous. He glanced over at Bakura and saw that the thief was just staring at him blankly as if not fazed by any of this at all.

"Having fun?" He inquired of his dance partner. "I don't usually dance this provocative, but it's pretty fun." She smiled at him and started to pick up on some of the more naughty things he was doing to her.

Ryou walked up next to his yami and leaned over near him. "A spanish tune is coming up next, would you like to dance…even if it is with your hikari?" He smiled at his yami who rolled his eyes and accepted the invitation onto the floor.

The song ended bringing on another of which the two pallid haired males were to dance to. Mariku had exhausted himself quite a bit from trying to make his lover jealous which was obviously not going to happen. "Thanks for the dance, but I think I'll just slip out and go home."

Bakura and Ryou had just stepped out onto floor. This made Mariku nervous and wanting more to leave as quickly as he could before he had to face him again. It would only feel awkward between them both.

"Maybe I'll talk to you again." Mariku thanked her again and tried to step off, but found a rather strong grip holding him back, but the grip wasn't tight or hurtful, it was gentle and warm on his flesh. "Would you like to dance?" A deep and beautiful voice said to him.

"…Me? But you have Ryou and—"

"So? I would rather dance with you…unless you don't want to…" The thief said. Mariku began to tremble with excitement and also fear of what he might do if he turned to face Bakura. He was still terribly nervous.

"Well…I can spare one more dance." He said and turned to Bakura. They walked back towards the middle of the dimly lit floor. The thief gently wrapped his arms around Mariku's waist and pulled him a bit too close for it to be comfortable for Mariku at this moment in time. "H-How are you this evening?" He said thinking that it must have sounded so stupid to Bakura.

"I guess I can't complain," Bakura said and shrugged. "And you?" He questioned in return. "Same…" Mariku replied simply and was looking off away from Bakura. The thief tilted his head to the side and tried to catch Mariku's eye.

"Why won't you look at me?" He inquired with his soft chocolate eyes focused in on the other's nervous features. "I---" Mariku was only able to say in his loss for words and was blushing again.

Well, I shall leave it at that. I have no idea what has been up with fanfiction but it will surely get resolved and there will be more to come. Lata!


	13. Chapter 43

Thank you for being patient with me if you have been. I've been really sick ever since I got back from vacation, but I feel a bit better today and I thought I would just give writing a shot. If this chapter is terrible, I blame it on my friggin' headache.

Mariku turned from Bakura and walked off of the dance floor and left the club quickly. The robber stood there for a moment and tried to think of what he could have said or done to make his lover leave like that. He dropped the thought and quickly ran after the other male.

The thief ran outside and skidded to a halt as he looked around for any signs of his boyfriend being around. He looked to his left and spotted a shadowed figure walking off in that certain direction. He chased after him and managed to catch up the male walking at a furious pace.

"What is it?" Bakura asked with a look of confusion on his features. Mariku gave no answer and just walked. He was of course upset over something, but he wasn't about to blurt out the things that make him weak right there in front of his lover. Bakura swiftly grabbed him by the arm and held him back so he could go no further. Mariku tore his arm away and just stood there silently. "Tell me what's wrong, Mariku." Bakura asked again.

The pallid haired robber had taken notice that his lover had begun to quiver and he was hunched over slightly and his head was tilted forward. He reached down from Mariku's hand, but the keeper again removed his hand from the reach of the other. "I'm just confused…." He said in a quiet voice.

"Why are you confused?" Bakura inquired, surprised to hear that this was all the other was upset about. Mariku turned about and looked Bakura right in eye. He looked so upset and he couldn't hide it from the sly thief. "I'm confused about you…and me..and just everything!" He blurted at Bakura with the given hand gestures.

Bakura cocked a brow cooly at Mariku and stuffed his hands into his pockets since he couldn't do much else with them? "Well, why? I'm not confused about my feelings." Bakura responded. Mariku narrowed his eyes stupidly at Bakura and just looked at him just as stupidly. "Those are your feelings, not mine," he sighed and his eyes veered away from Bakura and he crossed his arms vacantly.

"Less than twenty-four hours ago you ran away from after you had seen who I was, and now you want to talk and get close to me again after a whole year has already come and gone." Mariku frowned and started to rock back and forth on his heels.

"I don't understand half of the things I do, I don't exactly know why I ran away from you that night." Bakura sighed and tried to think of a way to convey his feelings to Mariku which he hadn't intended on doing tonight, but rather another time. "When we were in that alley way and you held that knife above me throat, threatening to kill me, I was afraid that I wasn't going to get to see you ever again, but I didn't die and it had been you all along right there…" Bakura said and then felt sick to his stomach after admitting something of that magnitude.

Mariku's more upset look softened with those words and he actually looked up at Bakura who had a vacant expression on his features and was just staring at him. "Don't look at me like that…" He said annoyed with Bakura's staring.

Just then, a breeze blew past the two Egyptians it having no affect on Bakura but it had some imact on the sleevless being standing before him. "We should go inside." Bakura optioned. "We could go back into the club and try dancing again."

Mariku clung to his own bare arms and crossed his knees trying to keep warm in the turning weather. He shook his head and looked back at the club. "You should probably go back, but I think I'm just going to go home." Mariku turned to start for home, but felt a warm hand graze his shoulder.

"I would rather be with you than in that boring place," Bakura said and received a disbelieving look from his boyfriend. His disbelief turned into a inquisitive look as he just stared at Bakura. "I don't know…you were a real ass. If I do take you home I might have to do something really mean to you. Are you prepared for those consiquences?" Mariku said and reached up and brushed Bakura's long fringe out of his face. Bakura nodded and they both walked off silently beside one another. Mariku eased his hand into the robber's as they went.

Ryou had taken to a table in a distant corner and was watching his happy customers enjoying themselves which gave him great joy as well. He felt so accomplished in creating a place for these people to enjoy.

Malik had been dancing with Missy when he had suddenly spotted Ryou by himself and thought this no better a time to go and talk with him. He pardoned himself and walked off of the floor leaving Missy to dance on her own which wasn't for long since the girl had spotted another man on the floor and had taken him as her dancing partner.

"Would you mind if I sat down?" He inquired as he stood before the male sitting there pleasantly. "Not at all, take a seat." He answered and watched as Malik glided into the booth.

They smiled at one another nervously as an awkward silence set in between the nervous hikaris. Malik looked down at his hands and bit his lip lightly but for a moment. "Listen, I'm sorry if I scared you when we saw eachother…" Malik said apologetically.

Ryou looked at him sort of surprised that he was apologizing, which he had not expected Malik to do. He put a hand on Malik's and looked him over with a smile on his face. "Well, apology accepted. I'm sorry I ran." He said meaningfully with a hint of slipped laughter in his voice.

Malik laughed a bit and a smile graced his features as well. He looked up into Ryou's light chocolate eyes and felt something that he hadn't for the longest time. It was a certain warmth that he had longed for since the two had parted. Ryou noted Malik's staring more closely and began to blush and his eyes turned from Malik's as he did so. The sandy blonde hikari chuckled and also looked away with a blush on his face that was not quite as noticable on his dark tanned skin.

He released Ryou's hands from his own and slipped out of booth slowly and regretably, but he knew that Ryou had a club to keep his watch over and he didn't want to distract him. The pallid haired hikari looked up at Ryou with confusion. "Where do you think you're going?" He questioned rather disappointedly.

"I was considering going home. I wouldn't want to deprive you of your fans. It wouldn't be very polite of me."

"Well, I wouldn't call them my fans…just frequent visitors." Ryou looked down to further his look of disappointment. Malik chuckled and leant down, kissing Ryou directly, something he hadn't done for a long time. Ryou leaned into it instead of against and wanted more, but Malik had already begun to pull away from him. "I may be leaving for tonight, but that doesn't mean we won't see eachother perhaps tomorrow."

Ryou nodded his eyes still closed and his lips still set from the kiss, which looked rather ridiculous since Malik had already walked away from his table. He opened his eyes slowly and looked around only to see that his awkward look had caught the eye of several of his employees serving nearby tables. He sat back quickly and just looked away embarrased with himself.

It had been at least an hour before the pallid haired hikari had decided to call it a night. He had handed off the keys to the club to Megan and asked her politely to lock up and explained to her that he was done for the night and was going home. She was more than happy to do so for him and bid him good night.

Ryou stalked out of the club and started his walk home. The night's air was cool and crisp and the sky was dark with no stars. There was an air of uneasiness about him and he couldn't call what it was.

He walked by a dark alley and felt that uneasiness, but ignored it and quickly walked past. Within that darkness glowed two sets of eyes one blue and the other a light green. These orbs of color followed the figure of the hikari and two grins came about in this darkness.

The one man nudged his partner with his elbow and pointed to the hikari. "There he is…" He pointed out the shadowed figure growing further away with each step that carried him." I see him." The other replied. They looked at one another and nodded as they crept out of the darkness and up behind the unsuspecting Ryou.

I know this is a short chapter, but I wanted to leave you in the dark here! Mwahaha! I'm sorry to be so late with this chapter tho! Forgive me!


	14. Chapter 44

I knew the suspense would kill you or at least torture you, but that isn't the point. Anyways, I know you want to know what happens to poor Ryou so I shall shut up for you and let you read. That is, I will only shut up if you haven't already skipped the beginning so you could just find out already. Well, whatever. See ya at the bottom.

The figures started to follow the pallid haired hikari as he walked down the street with his hands pushed into his pockets and his back hunched in a tired fashion. Suddenly, the eerie chill of being followed caught up to him and he peered back out the corner of his eye to see two men indeed following not far behind.

He steadily turned his eyes back to the path ahead of him and started to pick up his pace as he walked faster to gain some ground on the men, but it was useless. The men had also picked up their speed to keep up with the frightened hikari.

They looked at eachother and nodded and ran up behind Ryou and seized his arms and torso with their outstretched arms. The first man wrestled Ryou against his body and his eyes jutted around in search of a place that was out of sight and dark enough to not be seen.

"Let me go!" Ryou demanded and said quite loudly. The first man put his hand over Ryou's mouth and kept him quite while they looked around. The nearby alley caught their eyes. It was deep, dark, and out of sight. They realized that it was a stereotype to go into an alley, but its all they had.

They shrugged and hauled him off into the darkness and walked quite a ways to a very secluded area in the very end of the alley way. Ryou continued to struggle in their arms and wasn't about to give up himself to these to creeps.

Ryou was thrown to the moist cement with the two men hovering over him with smirks heavy on their looks and the glint in their screamed revenge. The taller man knelt down next to Ryou while holding him down and looked him over, poking and proding his stomach and chest. "He's a bit fat, but he'll do."

Ryou slapped the man's wandering hand away and looked at him with narrow orbs of disgust. "I am not fat, thank you very much. Now, release me." He demanded as he tried to sit up. The men pushed him back down on the ground and chuckled. "He's a bit whiny too." The shorter man commented.

The taller man had his partner hold the hikari down while he removed his jacket and shirt. His hands grazed the surface of Ryou's skin and he smiled at his comrade. "Someone's been working out." He teased as he touched Ryou's chest. The disgusted hikari bit down on the man's hand as it had traced its way up to his chin.

The taller man cried out and jerked his hand away. He punched him roughly with the other. "Why you little-!" He prepared to strike him again but was held back by the shorter one. "Now, now, don't do too much damage. We still want him to look pretty." The angry male undid the buckle on Ryou's belt and then undid the button on his pants. He tore them down to his ankles and touched Ryou gently.

Ryou blushed immensly at the unwanted touching and wanted to cry, but he refused to let down face for these criminals. The angry figure let down his own pants and started into Ryou, thoroughly enjoying every minute of the disgusting act. The second man looked up at his grinning friend and cocked his brow. "You seem to be enjoying yourself."

"I am. Do you want some of this?" He inquired of his comrade. "Of course I do, so hurry up so I can have my way with him." The other one snapped impatiently. Ryou's body was in pain, but he was trying his hardest not to cry out and give them what they wanted.

Once the taller male was finished with Ryou he dismounted the hikari and let his friend take his place atop the male. He gently brushed his hand across Ryou's red tinted cheek. "Such a beautiful thing you are." He dove in and picked up where the other male had left off.

Bakura had sat quietly on the living room sofa since he had arrived at Mariku's residence. He began to feel a sensation of pain in his lower half and at one poitn across his face. He couldn't understand exactly what it was, but he thought of it something important. Mariku walked into the living room from out of the kitchen with two glasses of wine and saw the serious look upon his lover's face.

"Are you all right?" He inquired and handed Bakura one of the crystal glasses. "Its Ryou…" He said quietly and sipped the wine slowly. Mariku rolled his eyes and sipped his own. "What of him?" Mariku didn't like the thought that Bakura had brought up the little hikari when there were far more important things that could be thought of.

"I feel it…it is unbelievably painful…" Bakura moved about in his chair and tried to get comfortable, but he couldn't seem to find the best spot. Mariku cocked a brow strangely and watched his face twist out of its normal vacant look. Bakura stood up and grabbed his jacket from the head of the chair. "I have to find him."

Mariku sighed and set his drink down on the coffee table, taking to his closet to get himself a jacket. "I'll go with you. We can find him faster." Mariku commented and walked out of the house with Bakura, who seemed to be in much more of a rush than he had to be in.

"Well, where do we look first?" Mariku inquired as he traced the steps of the robber who had started to get further ahead of him.

"Hurry up, stupid. I want another go at him." He licked his lips at Ryou. "Calm down. You sure are horny tonight." His comrade hissed back at his impatient friend.

"I am, so what?"

"I am not sure, I already have an idea of where is he, but not exactly…" Bakura closed his eyes a moment and tried to open the link between them, but Ryou's thoughts were garbling up the link and he couldn't get a word in to his hikari. "His thoughts are running wild…"

"I wonder what's happening to him." Mariku commented as he caught up to Bakura and walked alongside him. "If only I knew…I can't stand this pain that I am feeling."

"C'mon, beautiful. Don't just lay there." The taller male insisted. Ryou was very weak and in a lot of pain. He didn't want to move, even if he would have had his whole strength he wouldn't have moved for either man. He still struggled to get free even though it was obvious by now that he would never truly get free on his own. He wished Bakura were here right now.

The shorter male forced his tongue into Ryou's mouth as the other occupied his lower body. The taller male fell back out of Ryou and onto the ground, out of breath, with a look of ecstacy upon his features. "That was…awesome…"

"As I can see." His friend commented after pulling his mouth from Ryou's. "I will have another go at him while you catch your breath." The shorter one took over once again. "Get him tiger." His breathless friend cheered weakly from against the wall.

Mariku had started to take notice that Bakura was staggering and occasionally groaning as quietly as he could manage. "How are you holding up, Bakura?" Mariku inquired and looked over at Bakura. "I am fine….I can take it more than Ryou probably can." Bakura returned and kept his eyes on the path ahead.

"I can go find him by myself." Mariku optioned. Bakura glanced over at him with an upset look in his eyes that Mariku hadn't seen for the longest time. "No, lets keep looking." Bakura said and turned his eyes back to the path. Mariku nodded and walked on beside his lover.

The shorter of the two was more aggressive with his actions, unlike his friend who wasn't this way with Ryou. This was enough to cause Ryou to cry out. The taller male laughed at the hikari's pain and nudged himself closer to the two to cause more of the unwanted pain, or at least as much as his tired body was able.

This extra help caused Bakura more than enough to pain to fall to his knees holding himself in pain. "Bakura!" The sandy blonde knelt down beside his boyfriend and watched him with a worried expression as he winced and struggled to stand. "Stop Bakura!"

"No…" Bakura rebelled.

"You can't continue to search, I'll do it myself!" Mariku raged. Bakura grabbed his arm and used it to help himself stand so that he may continue on. Mariku picked up a small pebble vacantly laying on the ground and threw it at the back of the persistant male's head. He swiftly turned about looking exhausted and rubbing the back of his head. "What was that for?" He yelled at Mariku.

"I want you to step down this instant, and let me look for Ryou! You are too weak to continue!" Mariku yelled in return. " Bakura just stood there staring at him and trembling. "I can't…" He said in a quiet voice.

Mariku perched his hands on his hips and looked at Bakura roughly. "And why is that?" He inquired and looked at him with narrow orbs of worry and anger. "I just can't…I have to protect him…and do all I can to help him…"

"I know you want to protect him, but look at yourself!" Mariku pointed out. "You can barely walk or for that matter stand!"

"…I have too…" Bakura started to walk and Mariku mummbled something under his breath and followed up. "I don't care what kind of condition I am in." Mariku growled at Bakura and threw another rock, hitting him in about the same place as before. Bakura turned and looked at Mariku very unkindly. "Would you stop doing that?"

"Did you ever consider that maybe I cared about your health or safety? Did you?"

"I know that you care." Bakura started off. Mariku narrowed his eyes dangerously at him and blurted, "It's apparent to me that you obviously don't!" Bakura stopped and looked back at Mariku for the hundredth time. "Why do you say that?" He said more calmly towards the keeper.

"You won't listen!"

"I did listen to you!"

Mariku turned to face another direction and crossed his arms. "Mhmmm, you go ahead and think that." He said before sitting down on the ground rather childishly. Bakura sighed and rolled his eyes. "Why are you doing this?" He said with a slight whine in his voice. "I did listen to you, and I did think about how it would affect the both of us."

Bakura walked back to Mariku and painfully knelt down beside him. "I can't stop when my hikari is probably in more pain than myself. He needs me right now." Mariku's hand was graced by Bakura's who had broken his crossed arms and was holding to his hand tightly.

Mariku stared at their hands for a moment and sighed, rolling his eyes as well and then narrowing them at Bakura unfavorably. "Fine, you can keep going…and I'll come with you, but if you die or something stupid…"

"Thank you…"

"Whatever…" Mariku stood up off of the ground and brushed the dust from his clothing. "Let's get this over with." Mariku pressed on ahead of Bakura. The raider shook his head and smiled slightly as he too started off.

No sooner had they left that particular spot they had stood and fought for so long, but they had turned down a long alley and had been walking for quite some time when they started to hear screaming and painful cries. Bakura and Mariku ran towards the sound and quickly came upon Ryou and two other men that were all over the hikari. "What the hell are you doing?" Bakura yelled loudly as he saw his hikari lying there without clothing and looking the way he did.

Ryou was in tears and shivering because of the temperature in the dark alleyway. He was covered in bruises and trembling in pain, just as Bakura was. The two men looked back at Mariku and Bakura. They licked their lips greedily. "They're kind of cute." The taller one said to the shorter. "I agree."

Mariku backed away and actually looked frightened of the men. Bakura hadn't taken notice since his eyes were too occupied with his hikari and the two men. The shorter man licked the curve of Ryou's jaw. "Get away from him!" Bakura yelled angrily.

"Hey, I'll trade ya." The taller man stood and gave Bakura a daring smirk. "What are you talking about?" Bakura snarled. "This lifeless thing," the man lifted Ryou to his feet and held him close under his arm. "For you and your buddy."

"No fucking way…" Bakura quickly answered, not willing to negotiate or do any such thing with the likes of these men. "Then you can just fuck off." The taller man threw Ryou at his comrade in crime, who caught Ryou and snacked on his neck again.

"The taller male curved his eyes around Bakura to the frightened one standing behind him. "Wait, then how about just that guy?" He said with interest in Mariku. "No…" Bakura replied sternly.

"Aw, c'mon. I don't bite…hard."

"Leave these two out of this…" Bakura felt a sharp pain on his lower body and saw the little man hurting Ryou the same as before.

"Hey, I think I let up a little too easy by just asking for that guy. Hey, I'll even pay him." The taller one pulled a few twenty dollar bills out of his pocket and waved it at Mariku as if he were a dog.

Bakura stepped in front of Mariku and glared at the man. "I said leave him out of this…it is just between you and me…got it?" The guy walked directly past Bakura and grabbed Mariku by the jaw and looked him over, his half bare body pressed closely to Mariku. The keeper began to tremble with fear as terrible memories filled his mind. "Why don't you let him decide for himself. Maybe he wants a good time and we're happy to oblige."

"I…you…." Mariku fumbled with his words, and his eyes were wide and filled with fear. The man reached down and grabbed Mariku's groin and smirked at him. Bakura pivoted on his heel and tore the man away from Mariku and threw him against the wall. He started into him and hit him from every vulernable point he could get at. The shorter of the two men threw Ryou off of his lap and went to assist his partner.

Mariku took hold of himself and hurried over to Ryou to assist him. He removed his jacket and put it around Ryou. "Are you all right?" He held the hikari in his arms and felt him shaking uncontrollably. "Don't worry, Bakura's here…."

The taller man called to his friend from over Bakura's shoulder and pointed out Mariku and Ryou who were sitting there near eachother. The smaller man walked towards them and had obviously received a few hits explaining the pace he was coming towards them in. Bakura took notice of the man and called out to Mariku and Ryou. "Get out of here now!"

Mariku grabbed Ryou's clothing and the hikari himself, who he boosted up onto his back and ran out of the alley with him. He hadn't gotten far before he stopped and set Ryou down on the ground at the edge of a smaller alley that he made sure to inspect before returning to Ryou. "I have to go help Bakura, stay here and try to get yourself dressed." Ryou nodded with understanding and watched Mariku run back in the direction they had just come.

Just as he had returned to the dark alley, he witnessed the two men hitting Bakura at the same time, knocking him down to the ground and backing away tiredly. One glanced up and noticed Mariku as he came running and calling to Bakura. "Well, look who came back for round two." He said and wiped a spot of blood from his lip.

Mariku knelt down beside Bakura and put his hand on Bakura's back. "Are you all right?" Bakura sat up slowly and looked at Mariku with pain in his all telling eyes. "I thought I told you to get out of here…?"

"I'm not leaving without you."

"Just go!" Bakura returned. Just then, the taller of the men grabbed Mariku by the neck and tore him back from Bakura with a pocket knife held to his throat. "et him go you bastard!" Bakura's eyes lit up with fury and rage. He regained his height and prepared to attack the man again.

"Come near me and I'll cut his fucking throat!" The man retorted and held the knife to his throat more tightly. Mariku's eyes were filled with fear and he was stiff and unmoving. "I'm tired of fighting with you! I'm going to fuck one of you whether you like it or not!" The second man looked at his partner oddly and tried to understand what his friend was trying to convey.

"If you let him go, you can do whatever you want to me." Bakura tried to bargain. The man refused his offer quickly. "You already beat the shit out of me. Now, just get lost!"

"Bakura, get the hell out of here!" Mariku yelled at Bakura.

"No…"

"Please!" Mariku begged.

"I said no! You should have fucking listened to me when I told you to stay away!" He blurted out angrily. "Well, I didn't…I couldn't leave you here by yourself." Bakura reached out quickly and grabbed the shorter male by his neck and began to choke him using only one hand.

The knife was brought closer to Mariku's neck and was close enough to graze the skin of his neck. A small stream of blood flowed down his long neck and down to his chest. "Let him go, unless you want your friend to die." Bakura offered as his fingers gripped the man's neck more tightly.

Well, I shall leave it there for today. I hope you somewhat liked this chapter.


	15. Chapter 45

Hello everybody! I'm sorry that I haven't been keeping up with the chapters lately. They are just getting harder and harder to write, but I'll get it all done eventually, you know I will. I always do.

The criminal man holding Mariku prisoner in the alley cocked a brow and spat at the very idea that his partner in crime mattered to him in the least. "Oh please. I don't give a damn whether you kill the little whelp or not. I have what I want." He licked his way up to Mariku's ear. The tomb keeper was frozen in fear. The thought of being raped again was one of his worst.

Bakura wasn't quite sure why Mariku wasn't fighting back for his life and why he had been stricken with such fear. He knew that Mariku had been raped at least once in his life, but he didn't know that it would have had this kind of effect on him like this.

Bakura shrugged and with just his thumb was able to snap the man's neck into two. He fell to a heap on the moist ground and was dead. The taller male's eyes widened in utter shock as he stared at his dead comrade. It was only a non-caring act he had put up, but Bakura had taken his words literally and killed the man since he apparently had no purpose to be on this earth.

"Wh---what the fuck is wrong with you?" The taller male exclaimed and his eyes jerked back to Bakura frantically. "There was no purpose to his existance and you obviously didn't care for him anyways. I think I did you a favor." Bakura said viciously with a glint of crazed murderer in his eyes.

"Y—you are fuckin' messed up!" The man screamed again and held the knife closer to Mariku's neck and his limbs began to tremble nervously. Mariku had finally grasped his composure and was able to think of something. Bakura's malicious ways had brought about a sudden strength in him that he had lost a long time ago after meeting and then leaving Bakura.

"Bakura," He called to the strong male who slowly turned his glance down to him. "I want you to run and take Ryou with you, get as far away as you can from me. I have an idea, but I don't want you to get dragged in as well." Mariku explained.

"If I leave then he will take you somewhere where I won't be able to find you! Use your damn head!" Bakura growled at Mariku. "I am using my head, and he won't be getting that far, trust me."

"I won't leave you…" He hissed and stood in an attacking stance. Mariku rolled his eyes at Bakura's stubborness and reached into his pocket, fished around for a moment, and found a quarter. He flipped the small piece of metal roughly at Bakura to get his attention better. "Will you just listen for once?"

Bakura backed down out of his fighting stance and glared at Mariku. "You had better not die, you hear me you ass hole!" Bakura hissed and took a step back away from the nervous criminal.

Mariku's hair spiked sharply and his eyes narrowed dangerously as a malicious smile graced his features. The Millenium Item returned to his forehead and burned more brightly than ever before. He looked up at Bakura and tilted his head to the side playfully. "You have ten seconds. Start running!" He laughed loudly and quite evily. It had been much longer than a year since he had summoned such magnificent power such as this.

Bakura backed out of the alley and ran as quick as his long, thin legs would carry him. Mariku grabbed the one man by the wrist and tightened his grip until the male released the knife in his hand. He went as far as to even break his wrist for him. He leaned back against the man's chest and narrowed his eyes at the men with a large sly grin still on his face.

"You're coming with me." The shadows seeped out of the cracks of the surrounding brick and consumed the entire alley way.

Bakura had managed to get to his hikari just in time and had gained more distance between himself and the powerful shadow that had chased him only so far. He was surprised to see such strong shadow coming from Mariku, it was amazing how much power he had.

Mariku and his guest to the Shadow Realm were enveloped by such darkness and the keeper dragged the screaming man into the realm of shadows and demons. The man finally stopped screaming when he felt himself fall onto a hard, cold surface.

He opened one eye and glanced around and his eyes widened when he came face to face with a skeleton that was hung from a tree. He backed away quickly up against something that was cold and strong. He glanced behind himself and saw the letters R-I-P carved into the stone. He shrieked and covered his head in an attempt to snap out of what he thought was merely a dream.

He heard the sound of creepy laughter coming from just above and glanced back upwards towards the noise. Perched atop the grave marker was the keeper and he looked as disturbed as he ever had looked. His outfit had changed into that of black leather with spikes to adorn the leather and bands of black with studs on them. He had a skull pendant hanging from around his neck that was most frightening, but to further the man's heart attack there was a scythe in his right hand.

"I'm going to torture you and tear your body into little pieces one by one! HA HA HA HA!" Mariku said with a maddened look upon his features that scared the poor man the most. He had never seen such a demonic man in his life.

He held the scythe to the man's bare throat. "How does it feel to be held under a blade?" He laughed maniacally again and slashed his throat lightly just to draw some blood and further the heart attack the man seemed to be having.

He snapped his fingers and chains came jetting out of the pitch black and wrapped themselves around the man's arm. There were skeletons attached to the chains. The bony arms lifted themselves up around his arms and gripped them tightly. The frightened man screamed bloody murder. This was only the beginning of what Mariku was going to do to this man.

Meanwhile, Bakura had gotten his pained hikari to his home where he would be safe for the time being. He helped him into a bath and carefully cleaned him up. There was minor bruising and some cuts, but it was nothing too terrible. As he sat there with Ryou all he could think about was Mariku. He had seen that look in his eye and knew that he would be all right on his own, but he couldn't help but think that there was more trouble to be had.

In the Shadow Realm time supposedly stops, since this was the case, Mariku had been there for at least two hours torturing his victim. To the man it had felt like he had been tortured for eternity, Mariku however, didn't really care how long he had been in there. This was the first time he had ever had such fun with anyone other than the pharaoh or even Bakura.

He licked at his fangs and laughed in the man's face. "How does it feel to be at someone else's mercy? This is similar to what you did to me!" He recalled, even though it wasn't this same man, but another that he had experienced this torture by.

He looked down at the frightened creature and yawned. "This is getting so boring…all he does is lay there and scream to no end…" Mariku thought to himself. He turned his back on the man and looked around the realm. The man whispered a quiet curse at the keeper, who in turn spun around on his heel and sliced the man's head off in one clean swipe. He smirked and held the scythe over his shoulder and walked off.

He glanced around the realm and sighed with his head hung and his chin was to his chest. "I can't remember where I came in…" He whimpered and sat down against another nearby tomb marker. He leaned back against the cold cement. "Why must this realm be so big?" He complained.

Another thirty minutes passed and Mariku had just been wandering around aimlessly looking for a door, but he had not yet had any luck with his search and was on the verge of giving up and enjoying eternity in this world.

He leaned back against a tree and looked around. "Well, I guess this place wouldn't be terrible. It is quiet, it isn't crawling with humans, and the neighborhood seems fairly okay." He listed trying to look at the bright side of darkness.

Well, I think I'll drop off there for the day. I've been sitting at this computer for god knows how long trying to write a chapter for you people and quite frankly I'm exhausted. Later!


	16. Chapter 46

Wah! I'm sorry for not posting a chapter as soon as I had planned it! I've been sluffing off I know. I haven't been sleeping well lately and 1 hour each night just isn't enough to go off of. I'll try a hell of a lot harder to get these chapters in. Gomen ne!

Mariku had surrounded himself in chains with skeletons attached to the links. He had hoped that they could keep him company for the time being. He tried to have a conversation with the old bones, but they couldn't talk back to him; he tried to hold them and have them hold him like when he was with Bakura, but they were brittle, lifeless hugs. It just wasn't the same.

The keeper had already grown bored of this world he was trapped in and he wanted to go home and be with Bakura. He was lonely and longed desperately for physical contact from a living being and not these old brittle bones he had surrounded himself with.

"I wonder what Bakura is doing right now…" he had started to think, and then speaking of Bakura had given him an idea. "I can hack my way into his mind link and speak with him. Maybe he can get me out of here." Mariku said with hope in his tone.

He pushed away the chains and skeletons and closed his eyes peacefully and took a deep breath before attempting to break through in the link.

Hall of Doors

He looked round and was relieved that this place didn't look like the shadow realm, but it wasn't normal either. This place was composed of one very long hallway and what looked to be thousands of doors. Behind each door was a different mind, one for each person in the world, which would explain why there were so many to test.

Mariku sighed and opened the first door and covered his eyes when the bright light hit him like a ton of bricks. He peered out under his arms and saw that this was a child's room, it was decorated just as such. He backed out and closed the door quickly and looked disturbed. He had never seen so much pink in his life or in one room.

He continued onto the next door and opened it slowly now that he was actually afraid something evil might come from within it. He opened it fully and a pile of paper collapsed upon him like a tidal wave. The impact was incredible. He found his way to the surface and found a man sitting at a disk in the flood of paper, crunching numbers as it seemed. "Accountant," he sighed and pushed the paper back into the room and forced the door shut.

"This is going to take forever…." He complained. He had no choice but too continue his search and did so. Each different door he searched seemed as tretcherous as the next and he was growing weary of searching.

He opened another door regretingly and was shocked to see what was inside. It was a maze of stairways and doors. This room was unlike any he had ever seen before. A shadowed figure appeared before him and walked into the light coming from the hall and to Mariku's surprise it was the pharaoh himself and this was his complexing mind that Mariku had stepped into.

Mariku slammed the door in Yami's face and grabbed a chair from the last door and wedged it tightly under the knob so that Yami could not get out of the room. He growled and muttered something like a curse and continued on.

So far he had gone through a grand total of 845 doors and he had, had no such luck as to find Bakura's door to his mind. He was tired of these damn doors and these stupid people that he had come across in his journey down the long hallway. He wanted to go home or at least back to the shadow realm, but it would take him forever to walk back down the way he came to his door at the very end of the hallway.

He walked exhaustedly over to the next door and grasped the door knob only to get a slight shock from it. None of the other doors had done such a thing to him, someone was trying to keep visitors out. Mariku picked at the knob again and received yet another shock.

He smirked playfully at the knob and held out his scythe and hacked away at the knob, but again received a very painful shock to his system. He fell back on the ground, his body smoking from the heat and the continued shocking.

Mariku glared at the knob and was not going to be out smarted by such a stupid thing. He ran back to the last room and grabbed the young man playing his guitar in his mind room. He dragged him back to the door and carefully instructed him to take hold of the door knob and force the door open.

The stupid boy did so and was shocked to no end until he had opened the door. He fell back as a pile of ashen smoking flesh. Mariku thanked the youth and continued inside. The boy gave him at thumbs up, "No prob, bro."

Mariku noticed that this room had a certain darkness to it that none of the other rooms had. The floor was made of sand and the things in this room were made of gold. He cocked his brow and picked up the small golden statue. "Intriguing. Maybe I will take this home with me as a memento of this torture I have endured."

A quick hand stole it away from Mariku and set it back down in its proper place. "Who the hell are you?" The voice said dangerously to him. Mariku smirked and bowed. "It is me, Mariku."

Bakura's Living room

Bakura's eyes shot wide when he heard the voice in his room speak that one name. He felt more at ease now that he knew that Mariku was still alive, but it was odd to him that Mariku had not returned.

Bakura's Mind Room

Bakura lunged at the male to hold him tightly in his arms, but went right through him and fell into the sand. "What the hell?" He looked at his hands and then back at Mariku.

"You idiot, be careful." The spikes and the leather sank into Mariku's body and disapeared from him completely leaving behind the clothing he had been wearing from much earlier. Bakura sat up and looked at him and saw that his body was translucent.

"Well, I'm glad I got your attention. I looked all over this hallway for your fucking door and it took me forever and a day." Mariku complained at him.

"Mariku, how the hell did you get into my room?" Bakura inquired; he stood and brushed the sand from his clothing and stood in front of Mariku desperately wishing he could have reached out and felt his soft skin once again.

"I broke in here. You aren't the only one that is good at that."

"Why are you translucent? Where is your real body?"

"In the Shadow Realm." Mariku replied almost hesitantely.

Bakura glared at him and crossed his arms in a cocky manner. "I knew you would get yourself into some kind of trouble!"

"Yes, but I am not hurt nor am I dead. Just as you told me not to be." Mariku said sarcastically with a smirk on his face.

"Being in the Shadow Realm is fucking worse, you ass." Bakura retorted and wanted to knock Mariku's head cleanly off of his shoulders. "Calm down, Bakura." Mariku rolled his eyes and leaned back against one of the taller statues.

"How can I when you have already gotten yourself into trouble like this," Bakura growled at Mariku and clenched both fists at the other. "Then calm yourself and tell me how to get the hell out of here already." Mariku looked around the room slowly and noticed all of the beautiful golden things from their ancient times.

Bakura's eyes widened again and he just stared stupidly at Mariku. "You don't know how to get out…?" Mariku nodded and shrugged just as stupidly as Bakura was looking at him. "I…How the hell would I know what they are? I don't go there for a nice little walk every damn morning!" Bakura raged at Mariku.

Mariku looked away and realized that this was more of a setback than anything for him. Now who could he rely on? "I assumed that you would, but that was my first mistake." Mariku looked back displeasingly at Bakura who backed away from him slowly. "Don't look at me like that." He stopped and was far enough out of Mariku's glaring reach.

Mariku scratched at the back of his neck and sat down in the sand and leaned back against the wall of the room. "That's a very large set back. I guess that means I'll be in here longer than I had planned for."

"I'm not going to let you stay there. You need to get out of the Shadow Realm, its dangerous." Bakura said almost worried about Mariku. The keeper looked back up at Bakura with a care free smile on his features. "The shadows won't hurt me. I've got things under control."

Bakura frowned at the thought that Mariku had things under control. "Pfft…yeah right," he said sarcastically. "Of course, everything is under your control as usual."

"I don't actually intend on staying in the shadows. It is really boring. At least you spice things up." Mariku sighed and thought to himself for a moment or two. "By the way, how is Ryou doing?"

"He is calming down…but he is still very traumatized."

"Are you hurt?"

"I am fine, I can still feel what Ryou is, but it is nothing that I cannot handle." He said quietly. Bakura sighed and sat down beside the translucent keeper against the wall and looked over to him. "I am more concerned about your current state, and how well you will be in an hour or so. The shadows will slowly squeeze every drop of life out of you. You'll be another puppet under its control."

It was then that Mariku was hit with a truly tired feeling. His body didn't want to do anything but lay there and rest. "I don't remember the shadows ever being this strong…"

"You need all of the help you can get. I'll come for you." Bakura volunteered himself and started to stand. He felt a cold breeze go for his arm and looked down to see Mariku reaching after him. "Don't bother, just stay with Ryou. I'll find my way out."

Mariku was feeling more weak than usual and his translucent form was beginning to fade out. "I can't keep this link up. I love—" Mariku's body faded out before he could finish what he was trying to tell Bakura.

Mariku's real body, which had been left behind in the Shadow Realm, collapsed in a heap on the ground. The shadows were taking their toll on him and he would perish within the next hour.

"I am going to help you whether you want my help or not you stubborn ass." Bakura grabbed his old black trench coat and walked out of the house in search of a proper entrance to the Shadow Realm.

Mariku looked around and tried to stand, but his body was too tired and weak to move of its own accord so he just laid there looking out into the darkness. "I hope he understood me before I faded out." Mariku thought to himself. He felt a sudden pressure in this weakened state and felt as if his chest was going to collapse.

I'll drop it there, and hopefully I can get another chapter in much sooner than I have been. Hope you enjoyed it. Please RxR for those of you who oddly enough still don't know the drill or choose to ignore it. I still need the criticism!


	17. Chapter 47

How many of you are getting bored of this story? Raise of hands please? Well, I dunno if I've made this far too boring by keeping it going, and I realize that it is a very very long story, but I hope I'm not boring you as far as to make you not want to read it…

Mariku's vision began to leave him and his body was beginning to give into the darkness that was taken him over. He was exhausted and now gasping for air, it felt like his chest was closing in on his heart and lungs and it was painful.

With all of this pain he was enduring the thought of saving Ryou seemed pretty pointless since he was having to go through this. He was then asking himself why he sacrificed himself to save some hikari just for some raider that he wanted to have forgotten about. He found himself asking such questions.

Through his blurred vision Mariku saw shadowed figures racing towards him. They were endowed with black robes that draped down over their ghostly figures. They carried large scicles with a sickly blade that was at the least six or seven feet long from what Mariku could make it out to be. They had piercing red eyes that bore into his own and had reduced him to trembling and actually fearing for his own life.

These robed figures were none other than the Reapers of this hellish land. Heading the group of four there was a much larger reaper that had chains dangling from almost every inch of his body and he wore skeletons as if they were a fashionable jewelry. The skeletons themselves screamed at Mariku as if to warn him of their fate; the same he would soon have to endure.

"Great…the welcoming committee…" Mariku said quietly and sarcastically.

The reapers surrounded the unlucky male and rose their blades high in the air before bringing them down swiftly and cutting into Mariku's flesh; repeating this painful process as a form of torture that they played out before killing their unfortunate victim. Mariku tried and tried, but he could not keep himself from crying out in pain as they tore away at his human vessile.

Bakura had left not more than half an hour prior to Mariku fading out of Bakura's mind space. His mind was clouded with worry for the other; he continued to run the worst case scenarios in his mind as if they were really going to happen and he couldn't bare it.

He looked frantically for a proper portal into the realm of shadows and hoped and wished that he was not too late to save Mariku from such a terrible fate as death in that land of the dead.

He felt a strong energy reaking from in front of the fire hydrant. He cocked his brow and shrugged before tearing open the entrance to the Shadow Realm. He stepped in and the portal closed behind him.

Bakura looked around and saw nothing but darkness, grave markers, and skeletons hanging from the dead branches of surrounding trees. The raider instantly felt a strong pressure starting to close in on him. He remembered this s strength very well. He sighed and walked off north of the entrance he had discovered. As he went he called out Mariku's name.

The tomb keeper winced the moment he was given a chance to do so. The reaper's moved a foot or two away from Mariku and held high their weaponry and moved apart as the larger reaper came in through the surrounding assasins.

"Who the fuck are you supposed to be…?" Mariku growled at the leader.

The reaper gave him no answer and picked him up by the neck and held him high off of the ground, he dangled there helplessly, clawing at the demon's hand and gasping for air. "You….bastard…." he managed to squeeze out between both lightly blue tinted lips.

Bakura was walking along more quickly and was looking around frantically before he heard the one familiar voice he had come searching for. His hair spiked up sharply and he bolted off towards the sound of pain coming from a new direction. "I'm coming Mariku! Hold on!" He called and ran more quickly.

He saw the circle of reapers and the taller one in the middle holding Mariku up high by the neck. He leapt into the air somewhat over them all and came down spinning about and knocking all of the reapers away, landing on the tallest one and knocking him down to the ground quickly.

Mariku had also fallen to the ground with the leader of the assasins. Bakura ran to his side and knelt down beside him and sat him up. Mariku was bleeding from every angle; he was bruised terrible, many shades of blue, purple, and red; his clothing was ripped to a great extent and he looked like he had endured hell. "M-Mariku?" Bakura whispered and looked his face over frantically for some sign of life.

Mariku whimpered slightly and that was proof enough that he was still alive. Bakura heard the rustling of cloth as the reapers regain their height from all sides of him. The shadow assasins standing before him started to creep closer to him and Mariku; he began to back away from them, and then suddenly, one of the reaper's sliced him widely on his back with his scicle.

He had not time to scream in pain and agony, instead he leapt in the air and kicked the head off of the reaper that had injured him, and then picked Mariku up quickly in both arms and fled the enemy.

Mariku struggled to open his pain-filled eyes, he got as far as to see a new blur before him. His sight began to better and he recognized the pure white spiked hair, but he didn't recognize the pained expression on his hero's face. "Bakura…are you injured….?" He was able to whisper.

"It doesn't matter right now. Can you still breathe?" Bakura inquired himself.

He completely ignored Bakura's inquiry and gave him a grim look. "I…I told you not to come…"

Bakura glanced down at Mariku for a moment and then back at the grave soil pathway. "I wasn't about to let the shadows take you from me." Bakura hadn't realized that he had said what he did, but Mariku was on the verge of tears. He smiled thinly and winced when Bakura had leapt over the grave marker.

"Sorry." Bakura apologized and tried to be more carefully as he ran for the exit to the living world with the spectors close behind him, their scicles held forward and ready to kill.

Bakura glanced back and saw the spectors gaining on him quickly; he began to panic for the first time in his life, not for himself, but because Mariku was fading quickly and he knew that he would die if anything ever happened to the love of his life.

He reached the exit and tore it open, leaping out of the hole and landing on both feet with Mariku held against his body tightly. He glanced back and then quickly lunged away from the portal as he closed down tightly on the reaper's scicle and snapped it into two pieces.

He watched the sharper half fall to the ground and sighed with relief that none of the spectors had been able to follow him through the portal. He looked back at Mariku who was unconscious and on the ground beside him. Bakura smacked himself across the face because when he had lunged away Mariku had hit his head on something and he was bleeding from his left brow.

"Damn it," he cursed and picked up his unconscious boyfriend and carried him home quickly to take care of his many injuries.

Once they had arrived Ryou was awake and sitting quietly on the couch curled up in a blanket. Bakura removed his jacket while juggling Mariku and tossed the blood-stained cloth aside. He stumbled into the living room and looked to Ryou who was shocked at the sight of Mariku and had not yet seen the mess on Bakura's back.

"Bakura! What happened to him?" Ryou quickly stood and ran to the pair and gently pushed Mariku's hair out of his face. "I need a medical kit immediately. It is upstairs under my bed." Bakura had ordered and without waiting Ryou had gone to retrieve it.

Bakura dragged Mariku to the dining room and sat down with Mariku on a chair in front of him. Mariku just sat there, head tipped back in his unconscious state. Ryou quickly returned with the kit and handed it off to Bakura. He then hurried to the kitchen to dampen a few clothes to clean off the blood-dredged Mariku.

He handed off the first cloth to Bakura and went to open the kit while the raider gently brushed Mariku's blood heavy skin with its wetness. After wiping him clean he would bandage the area and go to the next, all the while not even giving second thought to the injury on his back.

I'll drop it there and start on the next chapter. Lata!


	18. Chapter 48

Hello hello! I don't have much to say right now so when I think of something I will write it for you! Hee hee.

After completely bandaging the other yami, Bakura had taken the liberty of getting a towel for Mariku's waist, since clothing could be irritating to his sensitive skin, and had carried him all of the way upstairs to one of a few made-up guest rooms.

He then returned downstairs to the living room and fell back on the couch for a little bit of a rest. Ryou had gone upstairs to shower after getting some of the blood from Mariku onto him he only thought it an appropriate reaction.

Bakura didn't sleep much thanks to the constant pain running its course up and down his back. Not only was the wound painful, but he was bleeding as well and he hadn't bothered to do anything for himself quite yet; he was too exhausted.

Fifteen minutes after he had collapsed on the couch for a rest, Mariku had finally awoken from his own little nap and was careful to make his way down the stairs to the living room where Bakura was laying quietly.

Mariku rubbed at his back and felt pain in only one area and yet the rest of his body felt less pained. "I have a strong feeling of pain in my back…" he murmured. He shrugged and looked over to Bakura. "How are you feeling?"

Bakura looked back at Mariku and then turned his eyes back to the ceiling and sighed lightly. "I am fine I guess…" Mariku nodded and looked into the Dining Room behind him and saw the pile of bloodstained clothing on a chair that belonged to him. "I'll never be able to get those stains out…" He muttered and walked into the other room. He picked up the clothing and was not happy with the look of his fashionable outfit. His entire outfit was of course stained with his own blood, but what he did not favor was that it was torn and tattered.

"Great…my clothes are full of holes and I'm in a bath towel," he dropped his hands to his sides and leant his head back and groaned. "How could things get any worse?"

"I have clothes that you could wear if you wanted." Bakura offered from the other room, still stationary on the couch. "I—thanks." Bakura stood up off of the couch slowly and started past Mariku for the stairway.

Mariku then caught a glimpse of the Bakura's shirt on the back and was quite shocked to see it even though he was used to seeing things like this. He clasped his left hand over his mouth and looked at Bakura's back with large eyes.

Bakura looked back at Mariku from the fifth step of the stair and was confused with Mariku's newest reaction. "What?"

"You're bleeding, Bakura." Mariku uttered from beneath his hand. Bakura turned on the light in the darkened stairway. Mariku felt his back, "I knew that strange pain didn't belong to me."

Bakura reached a hand behind himself and winced, he then pulled his hand back front and saw his fingers dredged in his own blood. Before now he had not truly known the extent of his injuries and he thought it had merely been a scratch. "As I can see."

Mariku hurried back to the Dining Room where he had noticed the medical kit had been left and scrambled back to the base of the stairs with his arms full with the large kit. "Let's go upstairs to your room. You can lay down while I clean up your back." Mariku juggled the white box into one arm and walked up the stairs and took Bakura's hand and dragged him up the stairs the rest of the way.

The persistent keeper helped Bakura to take off his shirt, and then he helped him to lie down on his chest on his bed. Mariku set the box of medical supplies down on the bed beside him and opened it and started shuffling through all of the supplies.

The keeper then hurried off out of the room and returned a moment later with a dampened cloth. He sat on the edge of the bed and carefully dabbed at the bloody wound on Bakura's back. The raider winced and groaned lightly. Mariku drew his hand back quickly and looked down at Bakura. "I'm sorry!" He had quickly apologized.

"It doesn't matter…" Bakura had brushed it off like this was nothing. Mariku dabbed more lightly at the blood as he tried to clean it off. "I'm sorry that you had to come rescue me from the Shadow Realm. It's really pathetic of me to have gotten stuck there in the first place." Mariku again apologized.

Mariku set the cloth aside and removed the lid from a tube of antiseptic cream and rubbed it on Bakura's back. The robber winced and breathed deeply to get through the pain. Mariku blew on it lightly, "Sorry, I forgot to warn you…"

"Whatever…it doesn't matter."

"I'm almost done."

Mariku shuffled through the supplies again and found some sort of homemade healing cream that he assumed would work well so he uncorked that as well and dumped it on and rubbed that into the clean wound. He leaned down and was face to face with Bakura. "Do you think you could stomach sitting up?" He inquired.

Bakura nodded and sat up slowly on the bed and whimpered when sat up at full height. Mariku pulled a large white bandage roll from the kit and started to wrap it very carefully around Bakura's bare torso and proceeded to tie it off as soon as he had finished. "I'm finished."

Mariku backed off of the bed and started to pack up the medical supplies left sitting out on the bed. Bakura stood from his bed and went to his closet to grab a more suitable shirt than the one he had worn that was covered in blood. "Thanks." He merely said and pulled his shirt on carefully. Mariku nodded and walked to the door. "You should probably go right to bed. I'll go clean up the couch and go to bed as well."

Bakura rubbed the back of his neck and yawned. "If that's what you want then don't let me get in the way." He approached Mariku slowly and without any hesitation pulled Mariku close and kissed him passionately, something he hadn't done in such a long time. He released Mariku and returned to his bed and crawled in under the covers.

Mariku shut his door slowly and was blushing brilliantly. He touched his lips as he walked down the stairs to the living room. Just then, there was a frantic knocking on the front door. Mariku walked to it quickly and opened the door to see Malik standing there looking terribly winded as if he had been running around.

"Malik? What the hell are you doing here?"

"Mariku, where is Ryou! Is he here?"

"Yes, he is. Where were you?"

"I have been running around all over the damn place looking for him. He had left the club and no one was home earlier when I came by here looking for him." Mariku stood aside and let his hikari in and closed the door. "I think he is asleep already."

Malik sighed his relief and was a little disappointed that Ryou had already gone to bed, he didn't want to wake him so he decided that he would just see him in the morning. He walked into the living room with Mariku and saw the bloodstained couch and was in a bit of a shocked state from the sight.

"What happened here? Did you kill Bakura?"

Mariku walked out to the kitchen and came back with a bucket of cleaning supplies and knelt down beside the couch. "No, there was a bit of a problem earlier." Malik knelt down beside him and grabbed a cloth from the bucket.

"What kind of problem?"

"I got myself trapped in the Shadow Realm and Bakura came and saved me. It was a messy situation."

"I can see by the bandages on your body. I'm glad you're both alright though." Malik and Mariku scrubbed at the couch for a while and talked as they did so. The two males had never been so close as to have a conversation or ever share a chore.

I'll leave you there for now. Just so you all know so it is no surprise, I am planning on ending this story relatively soon. It saddens me to say so, but that gives me the opportunity to work on another story in the making. You may not want to read it or whatever, but it is going to be a JouxSeto fic. I haven't come up with a name yet, but I will eventually. Lata!


	19. Chapter 49

Hello again! Thank you all for your kind words throughout the length of this extra long fic. I'm glad you've enjoyed it and I've enjoyed you all. I know I've said this a bit late, okay so I said it at the end but still, if you've had something more to say to me that you didn't convey in reviews you can just email me. I wouldn't mind it at all. I've enjoyed hearing from everyone!

The sun rose high over the Egyptian sands pushing away the moon and the cold night so as to bring warmth to Egypt's inhabitants. The orange rays cast themselves into the Guest bedroom of Bakura's home where Mariku had slept peacefully.

The keeper's eyes slowly drifted open and he shaded his orbs from the new day's light. He sat up and stretched his arm's lengths and heard several vertebrae snap into place and he fell back on his pillow with a relieved look on his face. He gave a sigh and sat up once again and swung his legs out over the bed and stood to his full height.

He bent over in order to stretch one last time and suddenly felt two warms hands embracing his hips and another body pressed against his backside. He glanced up and saw Bakura smiling slyly down at him.

"Good morning to you too, Bakura." Mariku leaned back up and turned around and put his arms around the raider's waist. "I trust you slept well," he stood on the tip of his toes in order to kiss the taller raider. Bakura nodded in confirmation and leaned down and took to Mariku's lips as if they were magnetized that way.

Bakura started to back away with Mariku still stuck to his lips and was leant against the end of the bed and fell over the board onto the soft, cool covers with Mariku on top of him giggling. Mariku sighed and rested his head on Bakura's warm chest and listened contently to his strong heart beating in his chest.

He looked up into Bakura's lively eyes and smiled at him happily as if they had never been apart and had always been together. "Bakura, I've been meaning to ask you something since a few nights ago in that dark street where we fought."

Bakura cocked a brow, "And what would that be?"

"Why did you leave Japan, leave me?"

Bakura took a moment to thoroughly think the question through and then consumed another moment to really think why he had left. "I didn't want to ruin your life. Malik had said that I was destroying you and I didn't want that for you." Bakura looked back down at Mariku with the most sincere look on his face.

"I've regretted leaving every day of my life though." Bakura ran his fingers through Mariku's messy tresses. "When I arrived here…I thought to myself, 'why did I leave something that I loved so much behind…' and I still feel that way."

Mariku nuzzled Bakura's shirt and sighed, "I thought the same thing." Bakura sat up and put his arms around Mariku and looked down at him with a most serious look about him. "I don't want to leave again as easily as I did."

"I don't want you to leave, period." Mariku looked down and wrapped his arms around Bakura. The raider looked down at him almost worried. "Are you alright, Mariku?"

"Of course I am. I am invincible." Mariku said and chuckled.

Bakura gave Mariku a most interesting look and leaned back against the headboard of the bed. "Really now? Then why don't you give me a demonstration?"

Mariku smirked at Bakura and crawled up further on his body and poked him lightly on the tip of the hose with his index finger. "I am invincible no matter what you say and I don't need to prove anything to you." He said with a smile on his features.

Bakura nodded and ran his hand up and down the course of Mariku's lower back. "I think being in love with me could be proof enough."

"That's true." Mariku agreed. Bakura chuckled and tickled Mariku's sides assuming that he was ticklish, and he was indeed correct. Mariku struggled to get away and in doing so had skittered all the way to the end of the bed and fell off suddenly. Bakura crawled quickly to the end and looked over it to see Mariku lying, limbs splayed out and him looking vulnerable. "Wheeeee!" Mariku uttered and started to laugh. Bakura joined him in laughter and helped him up off of the floor.

Mariku walked away from the bed and went to Bakura's room with the raider right behind him. He walked over to Bakura's closet and started sorting through the various things of clothing. Bakura leaned against the doorframe and watched Mariku surf through the hung clothing. "What are you doing?" He inquiried.

Mariku pulled out a black button down shirt and a pair of old jeans that had been torn on both knees. He turned with the clothing draped over one arm and smiled at Bakura. "I thought that we could maybe go explore the pyramids today, maybe see what we missed out on."

Bakura walked into the closet and grabbed something to wear as well and they both began to dress and spoke tersely while doing so. Mariku had gotten dressed first and walked over to the elongated mirror bolted to Bakura's wall and turned around as if he were modeling for a magazine. "I look good in your clothing."

"Possibly even better than me," Bakura too looked in the mirror and was wearing a white pin-stripe shirt and a pair of darker blue jeans. "No way you look better than me." He said playfully and turned for the door.

They both walked out of the room holding hands and went the length of the hallway and came to a closed door with a pair of boxers on the doorknob. Bakura chuckled with Mariku. "When the bed's a rockin' don't come a knockin'." Mariku recited. They both left the house still holding each other's hands. They started down the street in the direction of the closest pyramid to the city.

"Where do we go from here, Mariku? Do we stay in Egypt or move back to Japan?" Bakura inquired and looked up at the sky with his eyes shaded by his free hand. Mariku walked looking quite thoughtful on the subject. "I never really thought as far as that." He answered and thought longer of it. "I don't want to go back to Japan. There are too many bad memories there. I think we have a good start here in Egypt." He too looked to the skies above them.

The pair had rented a car that would be able to take them all the way out to the pyramid they had decided to visit. It was an hour's long drive, but they finally arrived. Bakura pulled the car to a skidded halt and turned off the heated engine. He got out and so did Mariku; they both stood in front of the pyramid that was supposedly off limits to civilians and looked at each other and smiled.

"Ready to go?" Mariku inquired.

"Only if I can take a few souvenirs home with us." Bakura returned and chuckled. They approached the opening to the pyramid; suddenly, men came rushing from out of no where and surrounded the pair. Mariku and Bakura stood on the defensive; back to back, and looked at the thieves of this desert.

"We have guests, Mariku." Bakura commented.

"I've taken note of this, Bakura." Mariku returned.

"I guess there is a second chance for everything right?" Bakura quickly glanced back at Mariku and then at the thieves. "Yeah, but I've already had my second chance for romance. I don't need anymore seconds." Bakura nodded and the pair rushed the enemy in a full frontal attack.

God, I'm going to cry! Even though it was a fairly good ending, I wish it weren't ending here. I've enjoyed writing this story and I wish I could have been able to come up with a damn better ending than I did. It's so pathetic. Anyway, thank you all for everything. If you've liked this one, perhaps you would like my JouxKaiba fic. I'm not saying you have to read it, but if you like me that much, maybe you'll want to. I dunno. Farewell all of you wonderful people!


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